Rulings Summary: General (11/13/95)
Stephen D''Angelo
General Rulings Summary Updated 11/13/95
=============================================================================
Rulings are collected from many sources. See credits and disclaimer at the
end of the file for details. The most recent mtg-l digest used was
"11 Nov 1995 - 12 Nov 1995".
These rulings are updated monthly. The most recent version is available via
FTP to "ftp.netcom.com" under "pub/da/dangelo/magic" or to "ftp.itis.com"
under "/pub/deckmaster/rules" as "rule-general.txt". If you cannot FTP,
send mail to "dan...@netcom.com" requesting a copy.
A '+' is used to mark changes since the last released version on 10/18/95.
Thanx,
Stephen D'Angelo
dan...@netcom.com
=============================================================================
Table of Contents:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Turn Order
II. Attack Phase
III. Spell and Effect Timing
IV. Glossary of Magic Topics
V. Other Rules and Rulings That Defied Categorization
VI. Tournament Rulings
VII. Acknowledgements and Disclaimers
Turn Order Rules and Rulings
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase 1: Untap
You MUST untap each turn. You cannot "forget". [Page 40]
May not cast spells or use fast effects before or during untap phase.
[Page 40]
Untapping is simultaneous. [Page 40] Because of this, having a permanent
untap will not affect if and how other permanents untap.
All Limited/Unlimited/Arabian Nights/Antiquities cards which said to do
things at the beginning of the turn or during the untap phase take
place during the upkeep phase. [PPG Page 110]
Phase 2: Upkeep
You still have an upkeep phase even if nothing happens during it.
Fast effects may be used during this phase by any player. [Page 40]
You can resolve the actions that happen in your upkeep in any order you
desire as long as all effects are dealt with during upkeep.
[PPG Page 35]
Any mana in mana pool at end of this phase causes "mana burn". [Page 61]
Check for player death at end of phase. [Page 64]
Effects which happen "at the beginning of upkeep" happen before any spells
or effects can be announced. You can handle them in any order. There
is one damage prevention step at the end of these.
Effects which happen "at the end of upkeep" happen last. Once you start
resolving these effects, only damage prevention can be used prior to
the start of the draw phase. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 14] You can
handle them in any order. There is one damage prevention step at the
end of these.
Upkeep costs must be dealt with even if the card is tapped. [bethmo]
Dealing with upkeep is either paying it or choosing not to pay it
(if you can) and taking the consequences.
If a permanent has an upkeep cost, you may not use any abilities before
its upkeep is paid or otherwise dealt with. Demonic Hordes is an
example. As an extension to this, note that a Sol Ring cannot be tapped
to pay its own Energy Flux upkeep cost because it cannot be tapped until
after that cost is paid or otherwise dealt with. [Peterson 11/01/94]
Note that continuous effects of the permanent will continue to be in
effect even before the upkeep is paid.
Declaring paying of upkeep costs on a card is considered an instant effect.
But note that the cost is paid immediately at announcement and before it
can be interrupted and not on resolution. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123]
For example, if you had a card that let you pay 3 mana during upkeep
to generate an effect, the cost is paid immediately, but the effect
happens on resolution. If it is just a cost, no one can prevent you
from paying it once you have the mana in your pool.
Declaring non-payment of an upkeep cost is an instant effect. When it
resolves, any consequences of non-payment happen. Once the consequences
happen, if the card is still around, its abilities can be used.
[D'Angelo 05/31/95] The consequences are usually destruction or burial.
If it is a destroy or bury effect, you can begin using the ability during
the damage prevention step (assuming it is a legal action during damage
prevention). [D'Angelo 06/06/95]
The upkeep is not considered paid until the instant effect resolves, so you
cannot use the ability of a permanent which has an upkeep cost until
after the spell stack in which you paid the cost is resolved.
[D'Angelo 05/26/95]
You cannot choose to pay upkeep costs more than once even if you want to.
[bethmo 05/30/94]
You only have to pay an upkeep if the upkeep says it must be paid or if the
card is worded as "Do this. If you cannot do this...". Even then if the
upkeep payment is in mana, you only have to pay it if the sources for that
mana are given. If there is no 'must' then you can choose not to pay it
and take the consequences. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 15] Thus, the Lord
of the Pit must be fed if possible. The "or take 7 damage" only happens
if you have no other creatures. Force of Nature's payment is optional
because it requires mana and does not list a source.
[Duelist Magazine #3, Page 15] Mana payments come from your mana pool
(and not land or other sources) unless otherwise specified. If you did
have GGGG in your mana pool when dealing with the Force of Nature's
upkeep, you would have to pay it. [Aahz 11/15/94]
If a card requiring upkeep costs is destroyed before the end of upkeep,
no cost needs to be paid. This is similar for cards that "leave play".
For example, if a Doppelganger switches away from Lord of the Pit it
need not pay the upkeep cost. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 15]
If something happens which adds an upkeep cost during upkeep, it must be
paid. For example, if a Doppelganger becomes a Lord of the Pit, during
upkeep, a creature must be sacrificed. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 15]
If not paying upkeep results in the card being destroyed or buried, the
card is considered to be destroying or burying itself. This is true
even if the upkeep cost is imposed from an outside source.
[WotC Rules Team 08/17/95]
You are not required to pay untap costs. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 14]
Untap costs only apply during upkeep. If you have another means of
untapping the card (such as Instill Energy), you do not have to pay
the untap cost as well. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 15]
Untap costs which are paid during upkeep can be used more than once.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123] (This is a BIG REVERSAL) This means that
it is valid to use Paralyze to untap a creature for 4 mana, tap it again,
then pay the Paralyze again.
Must pay the entire untap cost on a creature or none of it. For example,
if an Island Fish Jasconius had two Paralyze spells on it, you would have
to pay the three blue mana plus 8 mana of any color to untap it.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 98]
If a creature has untap costs that can happen at any time during upkeep and
ones that happen at the end of upkeep, then it can only be paid for at
the end of upkeep. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 98]
"Must do during upkeep" activities do not prevent the ability from being
used before you do that thing. Only upkeep costs prevent use of the
ability. [D'Angelo 05/26/95]
Resolving cards which give benefits or cause problems is considered an
instant effect. For example, Unstable Mutation or the Limited, Unlimited
and Revised Edition Black Vise. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123] It can
be responded to or be done in response to actions during upkeep. Note
that it is unlikely that another player can stop a beneficial effect,
because once it is used the effect happens even if the card is destroyed.
[Aahz 06/06/94]
If an upkeep effect requires you to do something and does not have
consequences for not doing that something, then you cannot choose to use
the effect when there are no targets. You cannot end upkeep with an
undone upkeep effect if there are any suitable targets available at that
time. [WotC Rules Team 07/19/95] For example, Erhnam Djinn says to give
an opponent's creature ForestWalk. You cannot choose to use this effect
when your opponent has no creatures. You can however end upkeep without
dealing with it if there are no creatures at the end of upkeep.
Cards that require you to do something to other cards do not prevent
those other cards from being used prior to doing the something. For
example, Unstable Mutation adds a -1/-1 counter to a creature and this
does not prevent you from using the creature prior to putting the
counter on. [WotC Rules Team 11/16/94]
If such a card leaves play during upkeep by being destroyed (or if it is
an artifact which is not a creature or land, by being tapped) before it
is used, then it has no effect (good or bad). [Aahz 06/06/94]
All Limited/Unlimited/Arabian Nights/Antiquities cards which said to do
things at the beginning of the turn or during the untap phase take place
during the upkeep phase. [PPG Page 110]
Phase 3: Draw
Fast effects may be used during this phase by any player. [Page 40]
Drawing a card is considered to be an instant-speed effect which can
be responded to. [WotC Rules Team 10/12/94]
If you get multiple draws, each one is a separate effect. You can draw one,
do something, then draw another. [WotC Rules Team 10/12/94]
You cannot skip a draw or take additional draws unless an effect says
otherwise.
If you have no cards in your library to draw from, you lose the game.
[Page 40]
Any mana in mana pool at end of this phase causes "mana burn". [Page 61]
Check for player death at end of phase. [Page 64]
Phase 4: Main Phase
May do the following in any order: [Page 40]
a. Cast a spell -- Do this step any number of times before or after
other actions
b. Play a land -- only one per turn before or after other actions
c. Declare an attack -- only one per turn
The full logic for the turns works out as:
a. Cast spells
b. Play a land
c. Cast spells
d. Declare an attack
e. Cast spells
f. Play a land (if have not already done so)
g. Cast spells
This is the only phase in which you may cast spells which are not fast
effects. Spell types include Sorcery, Summon, Enchantment, Artifact,
Instant and Interrupt. [Page 40]
Playing a land is a not a fast effect. It cannot be done in response
to something else, nor can it be reacted to with anything (including
interrupts). [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123]
You may play multiple lands if have Fastbond in play, but they can only
be played when you could otherwise play a land. [bethmo] They cannot
be played in the same instant. Play them sequentially.
You only get one attack per turn. [Page 57] If you manage to untap
creatures they cannot be used in that same turn to attack again.
If a creature is forced to attack (due to a spell like Siren's Call or an
effect like the Nettling Imp) the player must declare an attack that
turn and send out the affected creature(s) if it is legal to do so.
[PPG Page 224]
Any mana in mana pool at end of this phase causes "mana burn". [Page 61]
Check for player death at end of phase. [Page 64]
Phase 5: Discard
You cannot end your discard phase with more than 7 cards, so you discard
down to seven cards in your hand. You may not discard if you have fewer
than seven cards. [Page 41]
You declare the discard down to 7 (which is all done in one action and not
as separate single discards) as a non-interrupt fast effect and it can be
responded to or done in response to something. Note that you may have to
do this more than once if something makes you draw more cards. You cannot
end this phase with more than 7 cards in your hand. [Aahz 09/29/95]
Fast effects may be used during this phase by any player. [Page 41]
Any mana in mana pool at end of this phase causes "mana burn". [Page 61]
Check for player death at end of phase. [Page 64]
Phase 6: End Turn
Declare that your turn is over. Your opponent gets the chance to react
by using fast effects. You may do the same. [Page 41] More than one
stack of fast effects may be used. The turn is not over until you both
say you are done.
Fast effects may be used during this phase by any player. [Page 41]
At the end of this phase (meaning nothing can be declared once this
starts), all "at end of turn" effects happen. You can choose the order.
A damage prevention sub-phase (usually regeneration and such) can
happen due to this step. [Aahz 03/30/95] You choose the order of all
end of turn effects, even ones generated by the opponent.
[D'Angelo 06/20/95]
If a creature has more than one "dies at end of turn" in effect on it,
it still only dies once. [WotC Rules Team 11/16/94]
Any mana in mana pool at end of this phase causes "mana burn". [Page 61]
Check for player death at end of phase. [Page 64]
Phase 7: Heal Creatures
No spells or effects can be used by either player. [Page 41]
All damage is removed from creatures, and all fast effects or "until end
of turn" effects wear off (unless otherwise stated on the card).
This happens simultaneously. [Page 41]
Any "until end of turn" effects used during damage prevention or other
triggered effects during this phase wear off immediately.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 37]
Any "At end of turn" effects that take place during damage prevention or
other triggered effects during this phase never take effect.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 37]
If any creature is reduced to zero or less toughness at this time, it
dies and cannot successfully regenerate since it will immediately die
again.
There is no time between turns in which to take actions. An action must
take place before the end of one player's turn or wait until the upkeep
of the next turn. [bethmo]
Any mana in mana pool at end of this phase causes "mana burn". [Page 61]
Check for player death at end of phase. [Page 64]
Attack Phase Rules and Rulings
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 1. Declare intention to attack.
This step is actually done as an action during the Main Phase.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
Your opponent can respond with fast effects. If they do so, the attack
is cancelled. You can try again when the effects are all resolved.
If no one announces any fast effects, continue on.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
It is similar to any other phase change in that you cannot go on to
declare attackers until your opponent is done doing actions in your
main phase. See the "I'm Done" entry for more information.
You are not required to say which player in a multiplayer game you are
attacking. You just need to say you want to attack. [D'Angelo 01/23/95]
Any mana in mana pool causes "mana burn" before going to the next step.
[Page 61]
Check for player death before going to the next step. [Page 64]
Step 2. Declare attackers by tapping them
There are some creatures which do not tap when attacking.
Creatures which are already tapped may not attack. [Page 19] This is true
even if they do not tap when attacking. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
Once declared as an attacker, untapping the attacker will not remove it
from the attack. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
This is not simultaneous. You can declare attackers in any order.
[WotC Rules Team 06/15/95] But you can declare several attackers at
once if you want to (for a band or for some other reason, for example).
[Aahz 09/05/95]
Only interrupts which draw mana and effects which are specifically used
when declaring attackers can be used during this step.
[WotC Rules Team 06/15/95] You can only use mana drawing interrupts if
you have an effect which can be used and which requires mana.
[WotC Rules Team 07/19/95]
You always attack your opponent and not your opponent's creatures. [Page 19]
You cannot attack yourself or your own creatures. [Page 19]
Banding of attackers must be declared at this time and cannot be changed
later. [Page 36]
Creatures cannot attack (or be tapped for a special ability) unless that
card or token has been in play on your side since the beginning of your
turn. See the "Summoning Sickness" entry for more information.
You can declare an attack with no creatures. This is sort of a
"null attack" which can be used to force the emptying of a mana pool
(which happens at the start of an attack) or force your opponent to
consider casting spells. Note that if you declare such a "null attack"
it is considered your one attack for that turn. You are not mandated to
declare any attack during a turn, but you may declare this kind of zero
creature attack. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
This is the only time that you check if the creature is allowed to attack
(such as can only attack if opponent has Islands). If any attack
enablers are removed after this point or attack inhibitors are
introduced, it does not make a difference. The creature is still an
attacker. [D'Angelo 02/01/95]
This is the time that you deal with penalties from attacking or not
attacking, such as the Hasran Ogress. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
Note that Nettling Imp will mark a creature for destruction at this time
but the creature is not destroyed until the end of the turn.
Bonuses that are gained by attacking creatures are gained at this time.
For example, the +1/+0 granted by the Orcish Oriflamme would take effect.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
If any penalties due to attacking or not attacking causes damage or lowers
the toughness of a creature below 1, stop after declaring all attackers
and do a damage prevention step before going to the next attack step.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
Creatures like the Mijae Djinn which require a coin flip to see if they
attack have their coin flip done at the end of this step. You cannot
add or remove creatures once you flip the coin. [D'Angelo 04/04/95]
Jade Statue and Brainwash both are used during this step. Note that
you can only tap mana and pay for these. No other interrupts
(not even Rust) can be used. [WotC Rules Team 06/15/95] You can think
of these as Triggered Effects since they follow similar rules, but they
are not.
Step 3: Fast effects can be used by either player.
You are not limited to a single stack of spells and effects.
This is the ideal time for the defender to eliminate attackers they do
not want to deal with (using Royal Assassin or Lightning Bolt), or to
enhance potential blockers (with Jump or such) to allow them to be used
for defense.
Remove any attackers and blockers which were killed from the combat
If a creature regenerates, it is still part of the combat but will
neither deal nor receive any damage. [Page 34] A regenerated creature
is still an attacker and can be blocked if you choose to do so.
[Aahz 06/22/95] A Lure will force you to block it to no real effect.
[D'Angelo 08/07/95]
If a banded group (using Banding or Bands with Others ability) has its
banding ability removed from one or more attackers during this step,
it is possible to cause the band to split up into separate attackers.
Once blockers are declared the band cannot be split so that blockers
change. See the "Banding" and "Bands with Other" entry form more
information.
Step 4: Declare blockers
Only untapped creatures can block. [Page 19]
There is no summoning sickness for declaring blockers. You can use any
untapped creature you have. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 36]
Only interrupts which draw mana and effects which are specifically used
when declaring blockers can be used during this step.
[WotC Rules Team 06/15/95] You can only use mana drawing interrupts if
you have an effect which can be used and which requires mana.
[WotC Rules Team 07/19/95]
This is not simultaneous. You can declare blockers in any order.
[WotC Rules Team 06/15/95]
A blocker can only block one attacker unless otherwise stated on a card.
[Page 19] You do not declare to block a band, you block a member of
a band and thereby become a blocker to all creatures in the band.
More than one blocker can be declared on a single attacker. [Page 19]
This is true even without banding ability.
Once blockers are declared against a creature, it is blocked. It remains
blocked even if the blocking creature is killed or the block is made
"illegal" by some action. [Page 57] This means that if you cast Jump on
your creature, that you do not get around the blocker or even avoid
damage.
If any member of a banded group can be blocked, the group is blockable.
[Page 36] See the "Banding" entry for more information.
Defenders do not band or group. They can just decide to choose the same
creature to block. Defensive banding only helps during damage
allocation. [Page 36] See the "Banding" entry for more information.
An attacking creature with an evasion ability (flying, xxxwalk, etc.) may
not "turn off" the ability and choose to be blockable. [PPG Page 79]
Defending creatures do NOT tap. [Page 59] This is one of the oldest myths
of the game.
Any effects due to being assigned a blocker or assigned as a blocker happen
at the end of this step even though the effect may have a delayed
component (such as the Thicket Basilisk's ability).
[WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
False Orders is played at the end of this step, after all blocking
assignments are made but prior to the effects of assigning blockers taking
effect. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95] In the past, False Orders used to
retroactively change blocking assignments during the fast effects step.
Now, it is to be used before the assignment is considered done.
Creatures like the Ydwen Efreet which require a coin flip to see if they
attack have their coin flip done at the end of this step. You cannot
add or remove creatures one you flip the coin. [D'Angelo 04/04/95]
Jade Statue is activated during this step. Note that you can only tap mana
and pay for this. No other interrupts (not even Rust) can be used.
[WotC Rules Team 06/15/95] You can think of these as Triggered Effects
since they follow similar rules, but they are not.
Step 5: Fast effects can be used by either player.
You are not limited to a single stack of spells and effects.
This is the ideal time for the attacker to surprise the defender by using
fast effects to make the creatures more powerful. Howl from Beyond,
Berserk, and built in creature abilities are good examples.
Any "if is not blocked" abilities of creatures are declared and resolved
at this time. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 36] See the "Is Not Blocked"
entry for more information.
Remove any attackers and defenders which were killed from the combat
[Page 34]
If a defending creature is killed and removed from the combat that the
attacker is still considered "blocked". [Page 57] If a creature
regenerates, it is still part of the combat but will neither deal nor
receive any damage. [Page 34]
Step 6: Damage Dealing
+ Resolve combat damage:
a. Assign all First Strike creature damage simultaneously. [Page 34]
Unblocked First Strikers deal damage to players at this time.
b. Damage prevention is used after damage is assigned. After damage
prevention, dead creatures are removed to the graveyard.
(See Damage Prevention for detailed steps.)
c. Assign all normal creature damage simultaneously. Unblocked non-First
Strike creatures damage the player at this time. Desert damage
happens at this time. [bethmo] Limited, Unlimited and Revised Edition
Basilisk and Cockatrice effects happen here as well, but wait until
after affected creatures deal their damage. [WotC Rules Team 04/12/95]
d. Damage prevention is used after damage is assigned and dead creatures
are removed to the graveyard. (See Damage Prevention for detailed
steps.)
e. Resolve any "end of combat" effects. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 37]
f. Damage prevention is done if any "end of combat" effects did damage
or destroyed something. Check for player death. [Page 64]
Note that steps 6 and 7 on page 58 of the rulebook correspond to steps 'c'
and 'd'. This entry is expanded to show the effects of First Strike and
'end of combat' effects.
+ If creature is killed and regenerates during first strike or during normal
damage dealing, it is still part of the combat but will neither deal nor
receive any damage (due to combat) in any further steps of the combat.
[D'Angelo 10/25/95]
If more than one blocker is declared for an attacker, the attacking player
decides how the attacker's damage is divided among the blockers. If
one of the blockers has Banding, then the defending player decides.
(See the Banding entry for more information)
If more than one attacker is blocked by a single blocker, the defending
player decides how the blocker's damage is divided among the attackers.
If all or all-but-one of the attackers has Banding, then the attacking
player decides. (See the Banding entry for more information)
Any mana in mana pool at end of Damage Dealing (after all "end of combat"
effects are resolved) causes "mana burn". [Page 61]
Other Attack Phase Rulings:
If damage needs to be distributed among attackers or blockers due to
multiple blockers of the same attacker or multiple attackers on the
same blocker, the attacking player always distributes damage first.
[WotC Rules Team 12/15/94] This applies to any decision about
distribution of damage, including attacking creatures on multiple
blockers or defending creatures on a band of attackers.
If an defender becomes tapped (due to using a special ability or some
other effect) before damage dealing, the creature is still in the
combat and receives damage but does not deal any damage. [Page 57]
If an attacker gets untapped, it does not change its status in the combat
at all. All it does is allow the attacker to use its special ability
or to remain untapped for blocking in the next player's turn. [bethmo]
If an attacker or blocker changes controllers during the attack phase, then
it is removed from the combat entirely and does not return even if it
reverts to its original controller. [Aahz 03/09/95] Note that if you
take control of an attacker prior to declaring blockers that you can
declare the creature as a blocker.
Creatures with the ability to get "pumped up" by spending mana may choose
to get more powerful at any time that fast effects may be used. This
can be done any number of times.
Each member of a Band of attackers is a separate source of damage.
Banding just allows a group to be blocked or let through as a whole,
and for the ability to distribute damage. It does not mean that the
creatures act as one. [bethmo]
Spell and Effect Timing
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kinds of Effects:
Fast effects are interrupts, instants and the abilities of permanents.
[Page 28] They can be used at many times during your or your opponent's
turn. [Page 27]
Permanents are lands, artifacts, creatures and enchantments which are in
play.
The ability of a permanent with an activation cost is handled as an instant
(and not an interrupt) unless otherwise stated on the card.
Non-fast effects are the casting of artifacts, creatures, enchantments and
sorceries. These can only be used during your main phase. [Page 9]
There are only two speeds at which spells/effects can be announced by
players. These are "interrupt" and "non-interrupt".
Non-fast effects are _not_ slower than fast effects. The only difference
between them is when they can be declared. A better naming would be
to call fast effects "any-time effects" and non-fast effects as
"main phase effects".
Lands can only be played during your main phase as well, but playing a
land is not a spell or effect. It is a special action.
You cannot play a land in response to a spell or effect and the playing
of a land cannot be responded to.
Casting a spell means playing a non-Land card from your hand. [Page 26]
Using abilities of creatures, artifacts or enchantments are not spells.
Life-Cycle of a Spell or Effect:
The life-cycle for a spell or effect looks roughly like this. All spells
and effects follow this cycle. More detailed sections follow this one.
1. Announcement -- Costs are paid. Targets are chosen. Choices are made.
2. Chance for interrupts -- A chance is given to use interrupts to counter
the spell or effect. If it is a spell (not an effect) you can also
use modify color, target and wording interrupts and have them change
the effect of the spell. Effects are different since very few things
target effects and destroying or modifying the source will not counter or
modify the effect. This makes them unmodifyable using existing cards
once they are announced.
3. Waiting for resolution -- When a spell/effect gets to this stage, it is
considered successfully "cast" or "activated". It can no longer be
modified or countered. Non-interrupt spells/effects go on a spell stack.
Once we get here, interrupt or non-interrupt responses to the announced
spell/effect can be declared. Interrupts cannot be responded to in this
step. They normally just skip right on to step 4, but they may wait here
if they are put "on hold".
4) Resolution -- Non-interrupts resolve in last-in first-out manner.
Interrupts resolve immediately. Check targets at this time. If targets
are valid, then effects take place, else it "fizzles".
Announcing a Spell/Effect:
The first thing that happens to a spell/effect is that it gets announced.
Announcing a spell/effect is a special action that cannot be interrupted.
[bethmo 09/07/94]
During announcement, all costs are paid (See the "Costs" entry for more
information on costs), all targets are selected (See the "Targeting"
entry for more information), and all other spell/effect decisions are
made.
+ All targets are selected during announcement, even ones selected by an
opponent. [WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ Target selection is made at the same time as but just prior to payment of
costs. This makes it possible for a Skull Catapult to target the creature
it will sacrifice and makes it impossible for a Royal Assassin to tap to
destroy itself. [D'Angelo 10/27/95]
You cannot interrupt a spell/effect during the announcement and payment of
any costs involved. You must wait until after all costs are paid and
target choices are made. [bethmo 09/07/94]
You must tap and have all mana necessary for a spell/effect in your mana
pool (see the "Mana Pool" entry for information) before you announce it.
You cannot interrupt the announcing of a spell/effect declaration in order
to tap for mana. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122] This means that if
someone manages to counter some of your mana drawing, by using Rust on
your Sol Ring, that you may be caught with mana in your pool and be
unable to cast the spell or use the effect that you planned to use.
Sacrifices are made during the declaration and death events due to these
sacrifices (for use by Soul Net or such) happen immediately following the
announcement but prior to allowing interrupts to be declared on that
spell/effect. [Aahz 01/12/95]
A permanent cannot be acted upon until it is successfully resolved.
[Page 63] For example, if City in a Bottle is being cast, you cannot
disenchant it until the spell stack it in in resolves. This means it
will have its full effect before you can do anything.
Interrupting a Spell/Effect:
Just after announcement is complete but before the spell is considered
successfully "cast" or effect "activated" or "used" (as appropriate),
there is a chance to interrupt the spell/effect. At this point we say
the spell/effect is "being cast" or "being activated".
If the spell/effect is countered, then it is not considered
successfully "cast", "activated" or "used". If it is a spell, it is
placed in the graveyard at that time. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122]
Interrupts always interrupt the most recently announced spell or effect,
but they can target a permanent, or any announced but not yet successfully
"cast" interrupt or non-interrupt. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123]
Interrupts follow the standard "announce", "chance to be interrupted",
"becomes cast", "resolve" lifecycle that other spells go through, but
they go through this more quickly because interrupts cannot be
responded to with non-interrupts... they can only be interrupted again.
Interrupts are resolved immediately unless they in turn are interrupted.
[Page 46] If an interrupt is interrupted, it waits until either the
spell/effect that interrupted it resolves or until it is put off because
it targets an interrupt other than this one. [Page 46]
Untargeted interrupts do not target the spell they are interrupting. They
just "interrupt" it and will not let they spell are are interrupting
resolve until after they do.
If more than one interrupt is announced which targets a given spell, all
of the interrupts declared by the caster which target the spell being
interrupted resolve in the order he declared them. Then the other
player's interrupts which target that spell resolve in the order that
she declared them. [Page 46] This seems kinda weird at times. Note
that this is the caster of the spell being interrupted and _not_ the
current player. Also, note that page 46 of the Fourth Edition rulebook
does not limit this ordering rule to targeted interrupts like the
Revised Edition rulebook did. This is an error in the Fourth Edition
rulebook.
The rule about order of resolution is an absolute one. All interrupts
by the caster of the spell/effect which target that spell/effect must
resolve before any of the opponent's interrupts which target that
spell/effect. Once one of the opponent's interrupts that target a spell
resolves, the caster can no longer target that spell with interrupts.
[WotC Rules Team 11/16/94]
Tapping land for mana is an interrupt, but since it does not target anything
it will resolve immediately (unless interrupted).
An interrupt which counters a spell or effect can be used at this time.
An interrupt which modifies the color, target or wording of a spell can be
used at this time to change how the spell will resolve. [D'Angelo 05/19/95]
An interrupt which modifies the color or wording of a permanent that was
used to generate an effect will _not_ modify the effect in any way.
[D'Angelo 05/19/95]
Fork is a special case interrupt since it adds a spell to the stack. If
you are Forking a spell that you cast, then your Fork will go before your
opponent's interrupts and will always make a successful copy. If the
original is countered after that point, the copy still exists. If you
are Forking your opponent's spell, then they can possibly counter the
original before the Fork resolves and cause the Fork to fizzle because
its target no longer exists.
Once a Fork is completed, the new copy is placed on the spell on top of
the spell/effect being Forked. This makes the copy resolve before the
original. [bethmo 05/03/94]
Note that the copy created by the Fork is never actually cast and so it
cannot be the target of interrupts. It is just the result of the casting
of Fork. [Aahz 12/14/94]
There are no official rules for what order interrupt which target a
single spell resolve in multiplayer games. One suggested strategy is to
let the spell caster's interrupts go first, then go around the table in
the order of play.
The Spell Stack:
Once all interrupts to a spell/effect are resolved, the spell is placed
on the spell stack. At this point it is considered "cast", "activated"
or "used" (as appropriate).
Spells/effects do not take immediate effect. Once they are cast, they are
placed on the spell stack and all players get a chance to respond to this
with additional spells/effects. The additional spells/effects are placed
on top of the stack as they become cast.
The rulebook refers to a spell stack as a "batch".
Once all players are done adding spells/effects to the spell stack the
stack resolves in the reverse order to the order spells/effects were
declared. That is, the top of the stack resolves first, then the next
spell/effect down, and so on. The first thing on the stack resolves
last. [Page 46]
A spell stack during the main phase can be started with any non-interrupt
fast effect or with a non-fast effect by the current player. At other
times, a spell stack can be started with any non-interrupt fast effect.
A spell stack can only have non-interrupt fast effects added to it once it
has been started.
There is no enforced order as to which player puts things on the stack.
You do not need to alternate one player and then the other. See "Who
Announces First" in this section for more information.
The resolution of the spell stack is done all at once. You cannot announce
any spells/effects (even interrupts) during the resolution of the stack.
When a spell/effect resolves, all the effects--meaning anything that is not
a cost (See the "Costs" entry for more information)--takes place.
Damage from a spell/effect does not take effect immediately. It is saved
up until the spell stack is done resolving and then it is applied all
at once. [Page 47] See "Damage Prevention" in this section for more
information.
A spell which will not become a permanent goes the graveyard once it has
been resolved or countered. It does not go when announced.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122]
It is possible for a spell/effect to fail in resolution because its target
is made illegal. Targeted spells/effects check their target for validity
when they resolve and will fizzle if the target is not valid. [Page 47]
See the "Targeting" entry for more information.
Destroying or modifying the source of a spell/effect after it is cast will
never cause the effect to fail or change in any way. [Page 47]
Note that creatures check lack of islands in play and other continuous
effects after the end of each effect's resolution. If an effect has
multiple parts (such as Balance), resolve all parts before checking.
[WotC Rules Team 11/16/94] These kinds of creature deaths are saved up
and handled during the normal damage prevention step for a spell stack.
See "Damage Prevention" in this section for more information.
Creature toughness is not checked to see if it goes below zero or below
the current amount of damage on a creature until the end of the stack.
[Aahz 07/09/95]
As an exception to the "you cannot announce spells/effects during the
resolution of the spell stack", you can use Aladdin's Lamp or Jandor's
Ring when resolving a draw effect because these cards specifically
say they modify a draw as it resolves. [Aahz 11/30/95]
Who Announces First:
If both players want to announce something, the current player always gets
the chance to announce first. If they decline to do something, the other
player can announce something. [Page 44]
The "speed" of the spell/effect does not matter in deciding who announces
first. It only matters if it is legal to be cast at this time. The
current player can go first even if the spell they want to cast is a
non-fast effect and the opponent has a fast effect.
[Duelist Magazine #3, Page 22]
The opponent should not announce a spell effect unless the current player
has indicated that they have nothing to announce. Getting permission
is tedious, but it does solve rules fights. Making eye contact is a
good thing to do as well.
The effect of the current player announcing first is that the current player
can always be the one to start a spell stack if they want to be.
There are no official rules for what order players announce spells/effect
in multiplayer games. One suggested strategy is to let the current
player go first, then go around the table in the order of play.
If a the current player skips on to a new phase when the opponent wanted
to announce something, or a player announces multiple spells/effects at
one time without a chance to respond, or the opponent announces something
when the current player was going to do so, then you should back up the
game and continue from the point where the goof-up occurred. [Page 44]
Players are not bound to follow the same set of actions they did after
that time. You should stop the game as soon as possible by jumping in
with a "Wait! I want to do something". Letting something pass without
saying "Wait" is quiet agreement with what they did.
You cannot make someone back up because you forgot to do something, even
if it is something you "usually do". They may allow you to if they want
but they are not bound to do so.
Strictly speaking you have to notify your opponent at every point what you
are doing with things like "I'm announcing this spell, do you want to
interrupt it", "I'm done with this spell stack, do you want to add
anything to it before it resolves", and "I'm done with the xxxx phase,
do you want to do anything". This is very annoying and breaks up game
play, but if you are having problems with a given player, fall back on
this until you learn to deal with each other.
Once the opponent has been given the right to announce a non-interrupt, they
are entitled to use any number of interrupts prior to announcing the
non-interrupt. Once they announce an interrupt, the current player once
again has precedence in announcing future interrupts, but once the
interrupts resolve, the opponent is guaranteed to announce their
non-interrupt still without the current player "stealing" that right back.
[Aahz 07/09/95]
Triggered Effects:
There are many effects in the game happen when something else happens.
These are called triggered effects.
Triggered effects most often are simply continuous effects like Psychic
Venom's dealing of damage when the land it is on is tapped or Lifetaps
giving one life point when your opponent taps a Forest.
Effects that trigger when something leaves play do not trigger until after
the card reaches its new destination (graveyard, hand, out of game, etc).
Continuous effects of cards also end at that time.
[WotC Rules Team 10/18/95]
Effects that say "If something goes to destination A, put it in destination
B" can only move the something to B if the something is in A when the
triggered effect is resolved. [WotC Rules Team 10/18/95] Since triggered
effects happen at faster-than-interrupt speeds, this almost always
happens. The only way the something won't be in A is if more than one
triggered effect happened at one time. See other rulings for what order
they resolve in.
Some triggered effects give the option of using the effect. For example,
the Verduran Enchantress lets you choose to draw a card when an
enchantment is successfully cast. This option must be exercised
immediately or it cannot be used at all.
If a triggered effect has mana cost to be paid to use it, then a small
timing bubble occurs in which you may use interrupts to draw mana. No
other spells/effects of any kind may be used by either player.
[WotC Rules Team 05/10/95] For example, if a Counterspell is cast
successfully, you may tap mana and power up your Crystal Rod in a special
operation before the Counterspell resolves.
In the timing bubble, only interrupts which directly produce mana are
allowed. Even things like Ley Druid are prohibited. [Aahz 05/19/95]
If an event triggers more than one triggered effect, the current player
resolves their triggered effects in any order they want, then the other
player resolves their triggered effects in any order they want.
[Aahz 10/05/95]
Damage Prevention:
Damage prevention is a special triggered effect that happen at the
following times: [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 35]
-- After resolving a spell stack in which something was damaged.
-- After resolving a continuous effect or interrupt which damaged
something.
-- After resolving an effect which destroys or buries anything.
+ -- After resolving the First Strike damage dealing step of an attack in
which anything was damaged.
-- After resolving the normal damage dealing step of an attack in which
anything was damaged.
+ -- After any spell stack resolves in which the toughness of any
creature is lowered so that it now is dying.
+ Sacrifices and loss of life, both of which are unpreventable, do not cause
a damage prevention step. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 35] Neither do
the burying of an enchantment because its target becomes illegal and the
burying of a creature when its Animate Dead is removed. [Aahz 11/06/95]
+ All damage or destructions which happen at the same time are handled in
one damage prevention step. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 35] For example,
all damage from normal damage dealing is handled in one step, as are all
the destructions caused by Nevinyrral's Disk.
+ Damage due to a spells in a spell stack is handled at the end of the spell
stack resolution. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 35]
+ Damage due to continuous or triggered effects is handled immediately. If a
single action/effect causes multiple triggered effects to do damage, then
they are also handled all in one damage prevention step.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 35]
Because there are many ways to trigger them, multiple damage preventions
may happen in a single spell stack. For example, player A taps a land
with Psychic Venom to get a point of red mana (damage preventions for
Psychic Venom damage because it comes from a continuous effect) then taps
other lands for more mana. Player A then casts Fireball split to target
3 creatures... one of which is a regenerating Fungusaur on player A's
side. Player B is tired of the Fungusaur and casts Terror on it. Both
players say they are done with the spell stack. Terror resolves first
and the Fungusaur is buried (damage prevention step here). Then the
Fireball is resolved and damage gets delivered to 2 creatures but it waits
for the stack to resolve to be applied. The third part of the Fireball
fizzles. Lastly, damage prevention from spells during the spell stack
is handled. [Aahz 10/21/94]
The damage prevention step differs from other triggered events. If multiple
permanents are damaged or destroyed at the same time, go through the damage
prevention steps all at once, not one at a time. Also, any player may
play damage prevention related spells/effects as well as interrupts of
any kind. [Page 60]
A damage prevention step occurs even if there is no hope of preventing
the effect in question. Often it is meaningless and can be ignored,
but it is always there (much like upkeep phase).
Here are the detailed sub-steps of the damage prevention step:
Step A: Damage Prevention & Redirection
+ During this step, any new damage that is on creatures or players is
considered "pending" and has not yet been successfully "dealt".
[D'Angelo 11/07/95]
This is the only step in the game where damage prevention, damage
redirection, and regeneration spells/effects can be used.
Interrupts and triggered effects (like the "Lucky Charms") are also
allowed. [Page 60] Any player may use these effects.
+ There are some effects, such as Eye for an Eye, which are not strictly
damage prevention but are used at this time. These effects are ones
that interact with damage. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 36]
+ Any number of stacks of spells/effects can be used during this step
and all the normal timing rules for announcing and resolving effects
take place. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 36]
+ Continuous effects which reduce damage or prevent death are applied
first. Things like Protection from Color and other "damage is
reduced to zero" take place at this time. So do automatic death
preventions like Consecrate Land. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 36]
They are also applied immediately after any redirection of damage.
Prevention spells are targeted at the damage, not the source of the
damage, and not usually at the affected creature or player (but read
the card). [Page 60] A lot of older cards say they target the
creature or player. In any case, prevention spells can only be used
when there is something to prevent (and fizzle on resolution if there
is nothing left to prevent when they resolve).
When preventing damage, damage can be removed in any order. This means
you can remove Trample damage first and leave non-Trample damage, or
remove damage of one color before damage of another color. [bethmo]
Apply any forms of damage redirection that are in use. You can prevent
damage before and after any redirections. Jade Monolith and Personal
Incarnation are some redirection choices. Note that in some cases
you _must_ redirect the damage but can prevent it first. See the
"Damage Redirection" entry for rules on redirection.
+ Regeneration effects can be used if a creature was destroyed or still
has lethal damage on it. Using regeneration taps the creature (if it
is not already tapped) and causes damage on the creature to be
ignored (you can no longer use damage prevention on that damage and
the creature acts as if it was fully healed) and prevents any destroy
effects which are on the creature as well. (See the "Regeneration"
entry for more information.)
Note that if a creature is "buried", "cannot regenerate", "removed from
game", or "sacrificed" it may not regenerate. [Page 33]
Ali from Cairo, Veteran Bodyguard and Martyrs of Korlis have their
effects resolve at the end of this step. They are not fast effects
used during this step. If they result in redirected damage, a second
damage prevention step will follow this one.
[Duelist Magazine #6, Page 21]
+ If an interrupt or triggered effect damages or destroys a creature
during this sub-step, the damage or destruction is handled during
this step. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 36] In other words, damage
prevention steps cannot be nested.
Tapping a blocking creature at this time to use a damage prevention
effect is legal and will not undo the damage the blocker already did.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 37]
Step B: Damage Results
+ During this step the "pending" damage that was not prevented is
successfully "dealt" to the creature. Even damage marked as "ignored"
due to Regeneration is considered successfully "dealt".
No spells or effects other than triggered ones can be used.
Effects due to damage being dealt happen at this time. For example,
the Hypnotic Specter would cause a player to discard a card at this
time if it damaged them. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 37] El-Hajjaj
and Spirit Link also happen at this time. If damage or destruction
happens, it will be dealt with in a following damage prevention step.
[Duelist Magazine #6, Page 21]
Damage is still considered successfully dealt if the target of the
damage is not still a creature at this time. Effects due to damage
will still happen if they make sense, but the target is considered
to have zero power and toughness for things like El-Hajjaj or such.
Note that the target had to be a creature when the damage effect
resolved in order to be damaged at all. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
Trample damage in excess of the a creature's toughness is applied to
the player at this time. Unprevented damage is applied with
non-Trample first and then Trample damage, so that there is the
greatest chance of Trample working. There will be a second damage
prevention step following this one to resolve the Trample damage.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122] Note that if a creature regenerated
that the damage on it is still there (but is ignored when checking to
see if the creature dies) and that damage can still cause Trample
effects. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 37]
+ Note that Trample damage redirection is applied before checking to see
how much damage is successfully dealt to the creature. Trample damage
which is redirected to the player is not considered to have been dealt
to the creature. [Aahz 11/11/95]
If both players have effects happening at this time, the current player
resolves the effects of anything they control first (in any order
they want to) and then the opponent resolves theirs.
[Duelist Magazine #6, Page 21]
Step C: Send Creatures to Graveyard
No spells or effects other than triggered ones can be used.
+ Review the unprevented and not "ignored" damage. If the creature still
has enough damage to be killed or it has an unprevented destroy
effect on it, it goes to the graveyard.
If a creature started damage prevention with a zero toughness or with
lethal damage but by some means now has a greater than zero toughness
and less damage than toughness, it will not die.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122] For example, if a Nightmare enters
damage prevention because you have no Swamps, you can use the
interrupt Magical Hack to make it depend on a land type that you do
have and it will live because it was dying due to zero toughness and
now has toughness. If you have a Sea Serpent die due to no Islands,
however, it will not live if you hack it, since the "buried if you
have no Islands" is an absolute effect. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 37]
If the target is not still a creature it cannot die due to damage.
[WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
Step D: Apply Death Effects
No spells or effects other than triggered ones can be used.
Death events are generated. These events may trigger other triggered
effects such as the Sengir Vampire's gaining of a token, use of a
Soul Net, damage from Creature Bond, or the gaining of a counter by
the Limited/Unlimited Edition Fungusaur.
Duration of a Spell/Effect:
The effect of an interrupt is permanent.
The effect of all spells and effects are permanent unless otherwise stated
on the card. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95] This is a REVERSAL of the
long-standing rule which said that the effects of all non-interrupts
was only until end of turn unless otherwise specified. This results
in a LOT of errata on cards from prior to Fourth Edition, so when reading
older cards you will want to check the card rulings for errata or just
read them with the old ruling in mind.
Characteristics:
The characteristics of the source of an effect (i.e. color, power, or
anything else which might be relevant to how the effect works) are set
when the effect is announced. The characteristics of the target are set
when the effect itself resolves. Interrupts to a spell (but not to an
effect) can be used just after announcement to alter the characteristics
of the spell. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122] For example, using Giant
Growth on Tracker after his ability is announced will not increase his
amount of damage, but doing it on the target will increase the target's
amount of damage.
Targets are also fixed. If you use an Orcish Artillery, you will take the
damage even if you lose control of it before it resolves because the
"you" on the card is set when the effect is announced.
Glossary of Magic Topics
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Activation Cost:
An activation cost is anything listed as "xxx : effect". [Page 26]
(See the "Costs" entry for more information as to what constitutes a
cost.)
Only the controller of a permanent can pay a cost. [Page 26]
Unless otherwise stated on the card, activating a special ability is valid
any time an instant would be valid. [Page 27]
A single cost payment cannot pay for multiple different cards. For
example, sacrificing a single artifact will not feed two Atogs.
Permanents which have an activation cost which does not include tapping
or sacrificing themselves can be "pumped" for multiple uses in one
activation. This counts as a single activation of the permanent.
[WotC Rules Team] For example, Pestilence can be used in 4 activations
for 1 damage each or in one activation of 4 black mana to do one packet
of 4 damage.
+ Note that there is a difference between an 'activation' and a 'use'. A use
is a complete payment for an ability. An activation can include multiple
uses.
+ If an ability can be used only once per turn (or once each time something
happens), it can only be paid for once a turn (or each time it happens)...
meaning you cannot multiply pump it and it is equivalent to "no more
than <cost> can be spent this way each turn". [D'Angelo 06/21/95]
+ A restriction like "no more than BB can be spent this way each turn"
limits the number of uses but not the number of activations. You can
spend B on one activation and then B on another or BB all in one.
[D'Angelo 06/21/95] Note that if the activation cost is increased or
decreased that the number of uses that is possible may change, and it
may even become zero. For example a Roterothopter with Power Artifact
can be given +4/+0 since this can be done with a payment of 4 mana.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
If an activation of an effect does damage the damage arrives in one packet
for each activation. [WotC Rules Team] For example, putting 4 mana into
a Rocket Launcher will do one packet of 2 damage.
Effects that make an enchantment or artifact activation more expensive
only apply once per activation. For example, if Gloom (Revised or
Fourth Edition) were in play and Holy Armor was pumped up 5 times in
one activation, you would only have to pay 8 mana ((5*1)+3) for
the +0/+5 bonus, and not 20 mana (5*(1+3). [Aahz 02/05/95]
Paying an artifact or enchantment use cost is not considered to be
"casting a spell" and so it cannot be countered by something which
counters a spell (such as Counterspell, Deathgrip, etc.) [bethmo]
Animated Lands and Artifacts:
Animated lands do not automatically get a color. They are by default
colorless. Note that just because they are colorless does not make
them artifacts. [Peterson 10/14/94]
Animated lands and artifacts fall under all the rules for creatures
with regards to summoning sickness. This means that unless the card
started your turn in play on your side, that it cannot be tapped for
any ability or used to attack. See the "Summoning Sickness" entry
for more information.
Animated lands have casting costs of zero. [bethmo]
The Fourth Edition Kormus Bell has errata to remove the word "black". It
does not make the animated lands black creatures. They are colorless.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 10]
Artifact:
Artifacts which are not creatures or lands lose their abilities when
they become tapped. Any continuous effects cease and any activation
costs cannot be paid. [Page 31]
There are three systematic exceptions to artifacts turning "off" when
tapped. They are: 1) any upkeep costs, even ones in the card text, must
still be dealt with, 2) any abilities which are used to untap the artifact
automatically override this rule, 3) any time the card says something
happens when it is in a tapped state (i.e. Mana Vault damage).
[WotC Rules Team 10/18/95]
Artifacts have no color but can be xxxxLaced into a color. [PPG Page 93]
The artifact quality of a card has nothing to do with its color. If you
Chaoslace an artifact, it is now a red artifact. [bethmo]
See the "Lucky Charms" entry for information on the "gain 1 life when"
artifacts.
The term "Mono Artifact" was used on Limited/Unlimited/Arabian Nights/
Antiquities cards to mean that the artifact had "Tap" as part of the
activation cost (if it had one) or as the activation cost (if it had no
activation cost before). When playing one of these cards, keep this in
mind.
The term "Poly Artifact" was used on Limited/Unlimited/Arabian Nights/
Antiquities cards to mean that the activation cost did not include
tapping.
The term "Continuous Artifact" was used on Limited/Unlimited/Arabian
Nights/Antiquities to mean that the artifact had no activation costs.
See the Activation Cost entry for more information.
Artifact Creature:
Artifact creatures can use abilities even when tapped, just like creatures
can. [Page 31]
Artifact Creatures cannot attack the turn in which they are put into play
or do any action which would cause them to be tapped. They have all
the limitations that regular creatures do. [Page 31]
The effects and abilities of artifact creatures (or artifact lands) can
be used even when the creature (or land) is tapped (as long as tapping
is not part of the use cost). [WotC Rules Team 04/26/95]
Artifact creatures are not "summon" spells. [Page 31]
Attack:
See the section on the "Attack Phase" for information about attacks.
You only get one attack on each of your turns.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
You attack another player. You cannot attack yourself and you cannot
attack specific creatures. [Page 19]
Special abilities of creatures, such as Tim's poke, are not attacks.
Neither are spells like Fireball or Lightning Bolt. These are just
spells and effects. An Attack is something special in Magic.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 35]
Attack or Die Effects:
Several creatures and spells have the ability to force a creature to attack
or be destroyed. These include Siren's Call, Nettling Imp and Norrit.
See the "Must Attack" entry for more information.
Creature is destroyed if it cannot attack. This includes a Sea Serpent
which cannot attack if opponent has no Islands, non-flying creatures
which cannot attack if the opponent has an Island Sanctuary, or if the
creature is in a tapped state and cannot attack. [Aahz]
Can affect a tapped creature. [Snark]
Creatures can regenerate if they are destroyed from this effect, but not
if they are buried.
Does not count as making the creature "on its way to the graveyard" until
the actual destroy effect kicks in at the end of the turn.
These effects can only affect a creature or set of creatures if used on
the appropriate player's turn. Thus, you cannot use it on your turn to
affect an opponent's creature. In multiplayer games, you cannot make
affect a creature unless it is that player's turn.
[Duelist Magazine #4, Page 64]
Can only be used prior to the attack on a player's turn. Cannot be used
after the end of the main phase even if the player did not declare an
attack. [Aahz 04/11/95]
Banding:
Banding consists of two separate abilities, which can be referred to as
"mutual assistance" and "damage sharing". [PPG Page 86]
Mutual assistance only applies to attacking creatures. It is an agreement
that if any one of the attackers is blocked, that the whole group will
will stop and gang up on the blocker(s).
Damage sharing applies only when damage is assigned during the attack phase
due to attacking or blocking. This part of the ability applies to
attackers and defenders and allows the players(s) with banding in their
group to distribute damage among the banded creatures.
The attacking player needs for all or all-but-one of the attacking
creatures to have banding ability in order for the attacking group to
be considered banded. [Page 36]
The creatures in an attacking band is set when the attackers are announced
and cannot be changed after that unless banding ability is removed from
one of them. [Page 36]
The defending player needs to only have one creature with banding blocking
an attacker for all the creature blocking the attacker to gain the
benefits of damage sharing. [Page 38]
Creatures do not "band for defense". Even without banding multiple
creatures can choose to block one attacker. Creatures must still be
able to block the attacker in order to be declared as a blocker. For
example, if a Serra Angel is attacking, you cannot choose to "band"
your War Mammoth with your Mesa Pegaus as a defense. The Mammoth
simply cannot block the Angel.
To block an attacking band with a creature, your blocker only need to be
able to block one of the creatures in order for mutual assistance to
kick in and have it block the entire band of attackers. [Page 36] For
example, a Mesa Pegasus banded with an Invisible Scathe Zombies can be
blocked by either a flying creature or a Wall.
If the conditions for banding are met (i.e. one banding creature in a
group of blockers or all or all-but-one in a group of attackers), then
the damage sharing ability automatically kicks in. You cannot choose
not to use it.
Damage may be divided up among a banded group any way you want to. You
can give all of it to one creature or any other way you want. [Page 36]
Assigning more damage to a creature than it can survive is allowed.
[Page 38] If some or all of the extra damage assigned to a blocker is
Trample damage, it does go past and damages the defending player.
Each member of a Band of attackers is a separate source of damage.
Banding just allows a group to be blocked or let through as a whole,
and for the ability to distribute damage. It does not mean that the
creatures act as one. [Page 37]
Grouping or banding in defense or banding to attack, does not change the
actual power, nature, or color of the creatures attacking. When damage
gets distributed, the damage still has color and may have Trample or
other special abilities. [Page 37]
If Banding is removed after attackers are declared but before blockers are,
then it is possible to split the band into pieces. Reconsider the
assignment of the band at this time. If a creature must exit the band,
the attacker may decide which creature it is. This creature becomes a
lone attacker.
If Banding is removed after blockers are declared, the attackers are still
considered as Banded for attack purposes, but at least one member of
the band must still have Banding at damage dealing time to maintain the
right to distribute damage as desired. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123]
If a Banding creature in a defending group is killed before damage dealing
and it regenerates so that it is still in play, it can still contribute
the ability for a defender to distribute damage among the remaining
defenders. Damage cannot be assigned to the regenerated creature,
however. [WotC Rules Team 09/15/94]
Prior to Fourth Edition, this ability was called "Bands" rather than
"Banding".
Bands with Other:
Bands with Other rules were introduced in the Legends expansion set and
have not been seen in any other set as of yet.
Creatures with the ability 'bands with other <creature type>' have a
limited form of the banding ability. When attacking, a creature with
this ability may join with any number of attacking creatures as long
as they all have banding or 'bands with other <creature type>' where
the creature type listed is the same. The choice to use this ability
must be announced when the attack is declared. These creatures must
then be treated as if they had joined together using the regular
banding ability. When defending, if at least two creatures with the
ability 'bands with other <creature type>', where the creature type
is the same, block the same attacker or attackers, then the damage
from the attacking creature or creatures is distributed among all the
blockers of this attacker as the defending player decides.
[Legends Rulecard -- exact and complete text]
This ability is similar to Banding but only allows creatures with this
ability to band with others of the appropriate type. For example,
Wolves of the Hunt (as created by the Master of the Hunt) can Band with
Other Wolves of the Hunt.
This ability does not allow for creatures without the ability to join in.
The key is the <creature type> specified. If the types match, then
they creatures can band together.
Creatures with full Banding ability may join the band. [Legends Rulecard]
If Bands with Others is removed after attackers are declared during an
attack, then it is possible to split the band into pieces.
[Duelist Magazine #2, Page 9]
If Bands with Others is removed before blockers are declared, the
attacker may completely rearrange the banding choices for all of their
creatures. [Duelist Magazine #2, Page 9]
If Bands with Other is removed after blockers are declared, then the
attacker may still rearrange but any creature which was blocking the
band is still considered to be blocking every member of that band.
[Duelist Magazine #2, Page 9]
It is possible for a blocker to end up blocking two un-banded attackers
or even two separate banded groups. If there are two groups blocked by
one defender, then the defender chooses how to divide damage between
the two groups. [Duelist Magazine #2, Page 9]
Blocking:
The rules differentiate between being "assigned to block" or "assigned a
blocker" from "blocking" or "blocked". The first two only happen during
the "Assign Blockers" step of the attack. The latter happen no matter
how a creature gets blocked. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
See individual card entries to see if they depend on this distinction.
Some effects can result in a creature being blocked or blocking without
actually being assigned. For example, General Jarkeld and Sorrow's Path
can swap blockers. Also, when a blocker is assigned to one member of a
band of attackers, the other attackers in the band are blocked but were
not assigned a blocker. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
Bury:
This term means "is destroyed and may not regenerate". [Page 58]
The Limited/Unlimited/Arabian Nights/Antiquities cards did not use
this term.
Cantrips:
Cards which say "Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep"
are called 'cantrips'.
You draw a card at the beginning of the next upkeep after you cast the spell
or use the effect (as appropriate to the card). In a 2 player game this
usually means your opponent's upkeep. You do not necessarily wait for
your next upkeep. [WotC Rules Team 06/15/95]
If a targeted cantrip fizzles you do not draw a card for it.
[WotC Rules Team 06/15/95]
If a cantrip is countered you do not draw a card for it.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 8]
Card Text:
+ Something that affects "each X and Y" affects everything that counts as an
X and/or counts as a Y. It will not affect anything twice.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ The text "target X or target Y" is the same as "target X or Y" and is just
spelled out to make the targeting more clear.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
Casting Cost:
The "casting cost" of a spell is number of mana points, regardless of
color which are specified in the upper right hand corner of the card.
[Page 58]
If there is an 'X' in the cost, consider the amount paid in 'X' to be
part of the cost during casting, but to be zero after the card becomes
a permanent. [Page 58]
The "casting cost" does not include any extra mana that was spent to
overcome obstacles like Gloom or Power Sink. [bethmo]
Nothing can increase the cost to cast an already-cast spell. For
example, you cannot Sleight of Mind a Gloom enchantment to make green
spells cost 3 more after a green spell is cast and expect 3 extra mana
to have to be spent. [bethmo]
Token creatures and animated lands have casting costs of zero. [Page 58]
Creatures with Animate Dead have a casting cost equal to the cost on the
creature card, not that of Animate Dead. [bethmo]
Color:
Black, Blue, Green, Red and White are the only colors in the game. [Page 58]
Artifact is not a color. [Page 58]
Colorless is not a color. [Page 58]
"Gold" is not a new color in the game. It is just used to help identify
cards with more than one color. [Aahz 06/15/94]
Colorless Mana:
The colorless mana symbol is a grey circle with a number in it. [Page 11]
A colorless mana symbol of cost N when used in a spell or effect cost
or as part of a payment indicates that N mana of any color needs to be
spent. [Page 11] For example, an Artifact can be cast with mana of any
color.
A colorless mana symbol of cost N when used in a spell or effect's effect
indicates that N mana of no color is involved. For example, the Sol
Ring taps to generate 2 mana of no color. The colorless mana symbol in
effects is no longer being used, but some older cards do have it.
Color of a Spell:
The color of a spell is the color of mana specified in the casting cost.
[Page 58] The background color of the card is used only as an aid.
[Page 10] The error with the Serendib Efreet in the Revised Edition has
a green background color, but the card is blue because the casting cost
includes blue mana.
If a spell only has colorless mana in its casting cost, then it is
colorless. [Page 58] Note that some cards with a zero casting cost do
have color. When this is so, there will be card text to remind you.
If a spell has more than one color of mana in its casting cost, it is
considered to be of all the specified colors. [Page 12] This is
much like a multiland being two kinds of land.
A card which takes red and black mana to cast is considered to be both
red and black. It would therefore be immune to Terror (which cannot
target black) and could have its damage prevented with a Circle of
Protection of either color. [Page 12]
A card with more than one color can be xxxxLaced to be a single color.
[Duelist Magazine #2, Page 7]
Continuous Effects:
Continuous effects happen at "faster-than-interrupt" speed because they
are always on. They get checked before and after every spell/effect
announcement and after each effect resolves. [bethmo]
The Goblin King gives all Goblins +1/+1 as a continuous effect, so if he
ever leaves play, the bonus is lost immediately. This may cause some
Goblins which have already taken damage to die.
Blood Moon is a continuous effect that changes all non-basic lands into
basic Mountains. This means that if a non-basic land is put into play,
that it becomes a Mountain just after it is successfully put into play
but before even an interrupt can be announced.
Continuous effects of artifacts which are not creatures or lands only
work as long as they are untapped. [Page 31]
Continuous effects of creatures work whether or not they are tapped.
[Page 30] Artifact creatures count as creatures for this ruling.
[Page 31]
Continuous effects of lands work whether or not they are tapped. Artifact
lands count as lands for this ruling. [WotC Rules Team 04/26/95]
Controller, Caster and Owner:
The owner of a card is the one who brought it to the table.
The controller starts as the one who cast the spell but cards can change
controller. [Page 59]
The caster is the one who cast the spell. This is always equal to the
owner. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123]
There is currently no way to change the controller of an enchantment, so
the caster is always the controller.
Only the controller can pay costs associated with a permanent (unless
otherwise specified on the card). [Page 23] This means that if
a spell like Regeneration is placed on an opponent's creature (or is
later found to be on an opponent's creature because he/she used Control
Magic to steal the creature from your control), that you (not your
opponent) can power the Regeneration ability since you are still the
controller of the enchantment.
There is currently no way to change the controller of an enchantment. This
means that enchantments are controlled by their caster. Enchantments on
a creature do not switch controllers if the creature switches controllers.
[Aahz 07/05/95]
The text "you" or "your" refers to the controller of the card and not the
owner. [Page 59]
Cards which are destroyed always go to their owner's graveyard and not the
controller's.
Copy Cards:
Cards which copy other cards include Clone, Doppelganger, Dance of Many,
and Copy Artifact.
All copy cards are targeted effects and cannot be brought into play without
a legal target. If the target becomes invalid after declaration but
before resolution, the spell fizzles. [WotC Rules Team 02/09/95]
A Doppelganger changing forms is also a targeted effect and will fizzle if
the target becomes illegal before resolution. [Peterson 11/07/94] If
it fizzles, it remains in its old form.
Copy cards in general cannot copy things which are only of the appropriate
type due to some effect. This is because the copy cards do not copy
existing effects on the target, they only copy the target. They look to
see the type of the target with all effects on it removed and if it
is still not of the correct type, it will not allow itself to be used.
[D'Angelo 06/30/95]
Clone and Doppelganger can only copy permanents created by a "Summon" or
"Artifact Creature" spell, or tokens that inherently count as
creatures. They may not copy permanents which are only creatures due
to some sort of animation such as Animate Dead. [WotC Rules Team]
Copy Artifact can only copy permanents created by "Artifact" or "Artifact
Creature" spells, or tokens that inherently count as artifacts. They
may not copy permanents which are only artifacts due to some other
effect. [WotC Rules Team]
The casting cost is one of the characteristics which is copied. This means
that casting the Sacrifice spell on a Clone of a Lord of the Pit would
give you seven black mana. [WotC Rules Team 07/27/94]
The copy of an artifact creature is an artifact creature. In other words,
"artifactness" is a characteristic that is copied.
The name is a normal characteristic and is copied. For example, a Clone
of a Plague Rat counts towards the number of Plague Rats in play.
[WotC Rules Team 07/27/94]
They come into play in the same tapped/untapped state as the target
would have when cast. [WotC Rules Team]
They do not copy the "expansion symbol" on a card. [WotC Rules Team]
They remain cards even when copying a token. [WotC Rules Team]
If a card being copied has variable forms or characteristics (set at
casting or changeable during play), the copy will be of the current
form. If the form is changeable, then the copy may change at a later
time as per the characteristics of the card that was copied.
[Aahz 06/06/94]
Anything that is normally done when a card enters play is done when the
copy enters play. For example, if a copy of a Nameless Race is put into
play you would have to pay the life. [Aahz 01/16/95]
They copy on the base creature/artifact and not any enchantments or
counters on it, regardless of whether the counters are due to natural
abilities of the creature/artifact or of other spells.
[WotC Rules Team] This means that a copy of a Rock Hydra with 6 heads
will be a zero headed Hydra (and will most likely die immediately).
The copy does get tokens when the copy card is cast if the card being
copied gets tokens when it is normally cast. This ruling includes the
Tetravus, Triskelion, Clockwork Beast and Clockwork Avian. The
Doppelganger does not get any tokens when switching to one of these
creatures during upkeep. [WotC Rules Team 07/27/94]
Copies of creatures (such as the Rock Hydra) with an X in the casting
cost treat X as zero. [WotC Rules Team 07/27/94]
The effects of Sleight of Mind, xxxxLace, and Magical Hack affect the
characteristics of the card and so copies of that card will also have
the same change. For example, a copy of a Hacked Nightmare to be based
on Islands will also be based on Islands. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 22]
Permanent effects which use counters are not copied, so Ashnod's
Transmogrant, Aisling Leprechaun and other such effects are not copied.
[WotC Rules Team 07/27/94]
Permanent effects played on the copy card override the characteristics it
is copying. For example, if a Doppelganger is modified with Ashnod's
Transmogrant, it will act as a Transmografied version of the creature it
copies even if it changes creatures. [Aahz 08/08/94]
Text on the original copy card remains active even though the card copies
the text (and other characteristics) of a permanent in play. Any
abilities or restrictions in the copy card's text stay in effect.
[D'Angelo 01/24/95]
Costs:
Costs include tapping, sacrifices, mana, payment of life (loss of life on
some older cards), or removal of counters. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 22]
If it is not one of these, then it is not a cost. If it is one of these,
and the card text is not clear as to when this is done, it is probably a
cost and not an effect.
If something has a cost, it cannot be paid accidentally. For example,
someone cannot make your Prodigal Sorcerer deal damage by making it
become tapped. You must actually pay the cost with the intent of
getting the effect in order for the effect to occur.
You cannot pay a cost of life if you have zero or less life or if the
payment will bring you below zero life. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 22]
Countering Spells and Effects:
A countered spell is placed in the owner's graveyard and all mana (or
other costs such as sacrifices) used for the casting are wasted.
[Page 59]
A countered effect simply goes away without any of its costs (including
sacrifices) being refunded. [Aahz 07/05/95]
If a spell is countered, it is not considered to have been "cast". This
means that you cannot use effects which say "Gain one life if xxx is
cast" or any similar effect. [Aahz]
Note that you cannot use an interrupt until after all decisions about
a spell/effect are made, so you cannot counterspell until the person
declares how much mana is actually in that X damage spell, or otherwise
finishes announcing the effect.
There are currently few spells/effects which will counter the effect of a
permanent, and countering the effect of a permanent is completely
different from countering a spell.
Counters:
Counters are used in magic to signify permanent or long-lasting effects
on a creature or other permanent. [Page 59] Typically counters are
given names or numeric values to be associated with them.
The terms "use a counter" or "use counters" are on some of the older cards.
This was used to indicate that the effect should be marked with a counter
and be considered permanent.
Counters of the same name are interchangable. Thus a 'spore' counter from
any source is considered to be the same as any other 'spore' counter.
Unnamed counters are never interchangable. Ones with just values, such
as +1/+1, are considered to be unnamed. [D'Angelo 09/01/95]
Creature Ability:
Cannot use the ability of a creature which requires tapping until the
creature has begun a turn in play on your side. If the ability does
not require tapping, you can use it immediately. [Page 30]
See the Activation Cost entry for more information.
Creature in the Graveyard:
+ Cards which refer to a "creature in the graveyard" or "dead creature" really
mean a "creature card in the graveyard."
+ A creature card is any "Summon Xxxx" or "Artifact Creature" card.
Creature Power/Toughness:
Enchantments on a creature which enhance the power of a creature do not
change the color of the damage that creature does. For example, a Fire
Breathing Pegasus does White damage. [Page 62]
Creatures can have negative power ratings due to a variety of reasons.
Such a creature does zero damage when attacking or defending and is
considered to have a power of zero for all intents and purposes other
than changes in their power. [Aahz 07/05/95]
If an effect sets the power/toughness on a creature to a specific value,
treat this as if the numbers on the card were changed. The effect of
any fast effects, enchantments or other things stay in effect. [Page 17]
So if a Hill Giant(3/3) with Giant Growth(+3/+3) and Holy Strength(+1/+2)
is affected by a Sorceress Queen(set to 0/2), then it's power/toughness
is 4/7.
Creature Type:
+ Creature type is defined as being the word(s) that follow the word "Summon"
on a "Summon Xxxxx". The creature is of type "Xxxxx".
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ The plural of a creature type is the same as the base creature type. Thus
Goblin and Goblins are the same, and Faerie and Faeries are the same.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ Names do have to match identically (other than in single/plural sense) to be
considered the same. "Spirit" and "Blinking Spirit" are not the same
creature type. [WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ Token creatures are of the creature type they are specified in the effect
that generates them. [WotC Rules Team 11/10/95] So are any other cards
which become a named type of creature, such as Mishra's Factory which
becomes an Assembly Worker. [D'Angelo 10/25/95]
+ Cards which say "Counts as a Xxxxx" such as the artifact creatures which say
"counts as a wall" are considered to be of that creature type.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ "Artifact Creature" and "Land Creature" are not creature types. Those are
permanent types. Such permanents do not have a creature type at all
unless the card text says that they do. [WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ Elder Dragon Legends have errata to say "Summon Legend" instead. They count
as type Legend for all spells that affect Legends.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ Other card characteristics, such as color, do not count as a creature type
either. So "red creatures" or "flying creatures" are not valid choices.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
Cumulative Upkeep:
A card with cumulative upkeep requires you to pay the cost on the first
upkeep, 2 times the cost on the next upkeep, 3 times the cost on the
next upkeep and so on. If you do not pay, bury the card.
[Ice Age Rulebook, Page 4]
For example, if a card has "Cumulative Upkeep: B and 2 life", you pay
B and 2 life on the first upkeep, BB and 4 life on the next upkeep,
BBB and 6 life on the next upkeep, and so on. [Ice Age Rulebook, Page 4]
+ Cumulative upkeep does not reset if the card changes controllers.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 8]
If the card is a land and its land type is changed to another type for
a while, the payment of cumulative upkeep may reset. The rule is that
if upkeep was paid during the card's last upkeep, then you add one to the
multiplier this upkeep. If it was not paid last upkeep, then it starts
fresh this upkeep. [Aahz 06/14/95]
Tawnos's Coffin and Oubliette are special cases in that they will never
cause the resetting of cumulative upkeep. Cumulative upkeep will also
not increase while the creature is in either of these. [Aahz 07/05/95]
Damage:
Damage is compared to a creature's toughness. You total up all damage
done to a creature, and once it has as much damage than it has toughness,
it has lethal damage. A creature will lethal damage will enter a
damage prevention step (see the Damage Prevention entry under Timing)
and will go the the graveyard if enough damage is not prevented. [Page 18]
You recheck a creature's damage versus toughness whenever it takes more
damage or has its toughness change. This means that if a 3/3 Hill Giant
with Holy Strength (+1/+2 making it a 4/5 creature) takes 3 damage then
later in the turn the Holy Strength gets Disenchanted, the Hill Giant
will die of its wounds because it is now just a 3/3 creature with 3
damage. [bethmo]
Damage is not subtracted from toughness. A 5 toughness creature with 4
damage still has a toughness of 5 and will be worth 5 to a Diamond
Valley. [bethmo]
If a creature is ever removed from play, all damage to it is immediately
removed. This includes creatures targeted by an Oubliette.
[WotC Rules Team 02/07/94]
Damage is not removed if a permanent stops being a creature. The damage
will be there if it becomes a creature again at a later time during the
same turn. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95] Remember that all damage is
always removed from all cards at the end of the turn.
Damage can only be assigned to a creature. If a target of damage is not
still a creature when the damage effect resolves, then it won't take the
damage. The target does not still need to be a creature all the way
through damage prevention. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95] Note that you
cannot use damage prevention if it is not still a creature.
Damage always remembers all the characteristics of the source of that
damage. This includes color, creature type, artifact nature, and any
special ability associated with the damage.
+ If you are to distribute damage among some number of targets of a
multi-targeted spell or effect, you can only distribute whole number
values and you cannot choose zero. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 100] This
does not apply to Fireball which tells how to distribute damage, and it
does not apply to Dwarven Catapult which just targets an opponent.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 100]
Damage Prevention:
Damage prevention spells and effects target the damage and not the source
of the damage or the damaged creature. [Page 60]
If damage is retroactively prevented (with spells like Reverse Damage or
Simulacrum) then the damage is undone but any effect of the damage are
not undone. [WotC Rules Team 05/10/95]
Damage Redirection:
Items and effects which cause damage to move from one target to another
are called Damage Redirection effects. These effects include
Personal Incarnation, Veteran Bodyguard, and Jade Monolith.
Trample damage is not technically damage redirection, but it follows the
rules for how redirected damage maintains its nature. Note that
Whippoorwill, which prevents redirection, will not prevent Trample
damage from passing through. [Aahz 12/06/94]
Redirected damage maintains its color, source and nature. Nature
includes any special effects that occur due to damaging. For example,
the Hypnotic Specter will cause a player to discard if any of its
damage is redirected to the player. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 37]
If damage is redirected in a retroactive manner, as Simulacrum does, then
the damage only retains color and source type. It does not keep any
abilities of the original damage such as the Hypnotic Specter or Sengir
Vampire. [WotC Rules Team 05/10/95]
Discard:
A discard is putting a card from your hand into the graveyard.
Some of the older cards used the word "discard" when talking about
cards in play instead of in your hand. All such cards have errata
issued on them to treat the word "discard" as "destroy".
[PPG Page 113] Except if the card is "discarding" itself. A card which
discards itself is considered to be a sacrifice.
[WotC Rules Team 01/29/95]
Enchant Land:
Many enchant land spells have the ability worded as "0: Tap land xxx
enchants to do yyy". The land is tapped on resolution of the effect
and not as part of the cost. [Aahz 06/23/95] This means that if the
land becomes tapped before resolution that the 'yyy' part will not happen.
Note that if someone uses an Icy Manipulator to tap your land in
response to you using it, you can use the ability again (paying the zero
cost) as often as you want to make sure your ability is the last one
declared and thereby the first one resolved. The other uses of the
ability will fail because they cannot tap the land.
Enchantments:
An enchantment is a card of type "Enchantment" or "Enchant _something_".
"Enchantment" cards are played in your territory and have a global effect.
You cannot play them on another player. [Page 32]
"Enchant _something_" cards are targeted and target a permanent of type
"_something_". These can be played in any player's territory. [Page 32]
Enchantments cannot ever become tapped. [Page 32] The exception to this is
that Copy Artifact is both an artifact and an enchantment, and because
it is an artifact, it can become tapped.
Only the controller of the enchantment can pay the activation cost on an
enchantment. There is a misleading statement in the Fourth Edition
rulebook about creature enchantments acting like their text is on the
creature. This is not strictly true. [Aahz 05/19/95]
If two enchantments or other effects contradict one another, the most
recently cast wins. See the "Existing Effects" entry for more
information.
Using the ability of an enchant something card does not target the card each
time it is used. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122]
If an enchantment is removed after an its ability is used, the effect
still remains until the end of the turn. For example, if a 1/1
creature with Holy Armor (treated as 1/3) gets pumped up with 3 white
mana, it gets +0/+3 making it 1/6. If the Holy Armor was then removed,
the +0/+3 would still remain, although the +0/+2 granted by the
enchantment would leave and the creature would be 1/4. [bethmo]
Enchantments which do damage directly (i.e. Creature Bond, Pestilence,
etc.) do damage of the color of the enchantment.
If an "enchant something" becomes invalid after it enters play, it is
immediately removed.
See the "Activation Cost" entry for more information.
Enchant World:
Enchant World rules were introduced in the Legends expansion set and
are now in the Fourth Edition.
Enchant world cards are treated like enchantments, except that only one
enchant world may be in play at a time. If one enchant world is
brought into play with another is already in play, the one in play
is buried. [Legends Rulecard] [Page 32]
Enchant World spells follow all the normal rules for Enchantments. They
are not more powerful than normal enchantments and do follow the normal
rule of the most recently used effect overrides the previous one. So,
for example, a Flight enchantment put on a creature after Gravity Sphere
is put into play will override the Gravity Sphere's effect.
[bethmo 07/07/94]
Events:
Some cards in the game trigger off of events. An event is just something
that happens in the game, for example a creature being destroyed or
a land being tapped.
The lucky charms (see the "Lucky Charms" entry) are the most common
event triggering cards, but Manabarbs and Verduran Enchantress are
other examples.
If a permanent does trigger off of an event, it will only trigger off of
each event once. The newer cards have taken to spelling this out on
the card.
Multiple different cards can trigger off the same event. If you have
more than one Scavenging Ghoul, each will get a counter when a creature
dies.
Events which occurred before the card entered play cannot be caught.
This means that it is not possible to use the Urza's Chalice just
after you cast it to gain a life. [Aahz 07/27/94]
Existing Effects:
It is possible to have two effects active which contradict one another or
for which the order in which they are applied might matter. If this
happens, apply all the effects in the order they were resolved and do not
loop back. [Page 45] For example, playing Flight on a creature with
Earthbind on it will give the creature Flying since the Flight is more
recent than then Earthbind.
If an effect is removed from play or changed, then recalculate the effect
by applying the remaining effects in the order they resolved. [Page 45]
For example if you had a Blood Moon in play and a Conversion in play
(put into play in that order) then all non-basic lands become Mountains
(due to Blood Moon) then become Plains (due to Conversion). If Blood
Moon were removed, go back and start over to find that the non-basic lands
are no longer affected by the Conversion.
A changed effect applies when the original effect resolved. For example,
if a 3/3 creature is changed by the Sorceress Queen to be a 0/2 creature
after a Giant Growth is cast, then it becomes a 3/5 creature.
All kinds of effects are subject to this rule. This includes enchantments,
instants, abilities of permanents and more. Just resolve things in order.
Face Down Cards:
Face down creatures (hidden by Camouflage or Illusionary Mask) still have
any tokens they have on top of the creature. Some creatures are just
not very disguisable. [bethmo]
+ A blocking decision made on a face down creature may turn out to be invalid.
If this happens, the creature simply does not block and cannot be assigned
to a different attacker. [WotC Rules Team 11/10/95] If Lure is on a
creature and a creature blocks a different creature, then this is an
illegal block and the creature does not block at all. [Aahz 06/10/95]
Face down token creatures need not still be shown as tokens in play. You
can use cards to mark them so your opponent cannot tell them apart.
[WotC Rules Team 12/15/94]
Continuous effects of face down creatures still take effect. If you have
a face down Goblin King, you should tell your opponent that his Goblins
are 2/2 creatures now. Again, these creatures are hard to disguise.
All you really know about a face down card is what kind of permanent it
is. Usually, it is a creature. This means that you may target any spell
which targets creatures at the card. If the target turns out not to be
valid (for example, you try to Terror a black creature) the spell will
fizzle. [PPG Page 57] This rule applies even if you have more
knowledge, such as knowing that your opponent is playing an all black
deck!
If a face down creature is controlled by Control Magic or other means by
another player, it remains face down but the new controller may look at
the card.
A Clone or Doppelganger can be made of a face down creature. Your
opponent does not need to tell you anything about your creature's
power/toughness or abilities. The opponent must, however, inform you
of the results of actions you take (i.e. how much damage was done, or
whether tapping the creature allows you some special ability).
[bethmo]
Fast Effect:
Fast effects are Instants, Interrupts or special abilities of a
permanent. [Page 28]
Fast effects can be used during any player's turn. [Page 27]
First Strike:
Creatures with First Strike deal damage before creatures without it. If
a creature without First Strike is killed during First Strike damage
dealing, then it will not deal damage during normal damage dealing.
(See Step 6 of Attack Phase Rules and Rulings for more information.)
Having First Strike more than once has no additional effect. [Page 34]
Fizzle:
The term "fizzle" is used to indicate a spell/effect which was announced
but the target becomes illegal or invalid so the effect could not be
completed. This is different from a "failure" to work correctly on a
valid target.
Spells which fizzle out (due to target disappearing or whatever) are
still considered "successfully cast" even though they have no effect.
[bethmo 05/30/94]
Flying:
A creature with Flying can only be blocked by a creature with Flying.
[Page 35]
A Flying creature can block a non-Flying creature if it wants to. [Page 35]
Fog Effects:
"does not deal or receive damage during combat" means that it will not deal
or receive damage during the damage dealing portion of combat. Creatures
can still do damage and be damaged by spells and fast effects.
[Aahz 05/17/95]
Does not prevent a creature from being affected by blocking abilities such
as the Thicket Basilisk's [Duelist Magazine #2, Page 8] Note that
Revised Edition Fog does add in that special prevention clause.
Does not prevent the "Is Not Blocked" abilities from being used.
[Aahz 12/19/94]
If a Trampling attacker can deal damage but none of the blockers can receive
damage, then the Trample damage goes through to the defender.
[Aahz 05/23/95]
If a single creature is under a Fog effect and it is a member of a band,
it can still contribute banding to the band. [Aahz 08/31/94]
If a single creature is under a Fog effect and it is a member of a band,
it cannot have damage assigned to it as part of the band. [Aahz 12/03/94]
Graveyard:
The graveyard is also called the discard pile. [Page 60]
Dies, destroyed, and sent-to-graveyard mean the same thing. All count
as death events for spells that detect them. [bethmo]
Cards in the graveyard are just cards. They have no memory of whether
they were ever in play or not, or of anything that may have happened
to them when they were in play. They are not creatures, lands, spells,
or anything else. They are just cards. [Page 60] Some special
cards (such as Nether Shadow) do work in the graveyard, but these cards
explicitly say so. [Page 60]
Once sent to the graveyard, a card "forgets" all enchantments and things
that happened to it. [Page 60] This includes any changes to the text by
cards like Magical Hack or Purelace, or counters it might have
accumulated.
If something goes to the graveyard then comes back, it is considered a
new card since it forgot its previous life when it went to the graveyard.
[bethmo 05/03/94]
Any player can look at any other player's graveyard at any time. This
means that a player cannot hide what goes into or gets taken out of the
graveyard from any other player. [Page 60] Cards are always face up.
[Page 14] Same goes for any cards removed from the game.
[D'Angelo 06/22/95]
As obvious as it might sound, cards sent to the graveyard go to the top
of the graveyard. Also, you cannot reorder the graveyard during play
unless a card tells you to do so. [bethmo]
If multiple cards go to your graveyard at the same time, you may choose
what order they get stacked in. [bethmo 05/03/94]
When a card comes from the graveyard back into play (for example by
Animate Dead or Resurrection), any features which are normally set at
summoning time are set as if it was just summoned. If the creature has
an X in the casting cost, X is zero. So, Clockwork Beast comes out
fully wound, Clone must choose a creature to copy as it is brought out,
and the Rock Hydra has zero heads. [WotC Rules Team 02/07/94]
While it does not make sense to talk about a "creature" in the graveyard
using a strict reading of the rules, some cards actually do say this.
If a card talks about a creature in the graveyard, it is referring to any
Summon or Artifact Creature card.
Hand:
All players have the right to know how many cards you have in your hand.
[Duelists' Supplement, 5/94]
"I'm Done":
"I'm done" always means "I'm done unless you do something else". If the
player does something, then you continue as if you never said you were
done. Anything legal at that time is still legal. [bethmo]
Be careful about the use of this phrase since it is often unclear if you
are done with a stack of spells, done with the main phase or done with
your turn.
In play:
Player's hands, graveyards, and libraries are not "in play". [Page 61]
Cards which are not in the game or have been removed by some effect are
not "in play". [Page 61]
Interrupts:
The effects of interrupts are permanent.
You cannot respond to an interrupt with a non-interrupt. [Aahz 10/21/94]
See the "Interrupts" entry in the "Spell and Effect Timing" section for
more information.
Is Not Blocked:
Creatures with the ability to do something if they are not blocked can
use this ability after blockers are declared but before damage dealing.
It is announced as a zero-cost fast effect (unless the card has a cost
on it as well, in which case it is a non-zero cost fast effect).
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123] It cannot be used before blockers are
declared, if it is not attacking, or after damage dealing.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 100]
This ability is also known as a "saboteur" ability.
The abilities are typically worded with a targeted effect and the untargeted
effect of not dealing damage that turn. If the targeted effect fails
because the target is invalid then the untargeted portion also fails and
the creature will deal damage (unless prevented by other means).
[Duelist Magazine #6, Page 132]
This ability works even if Fog is cast. As long as the creature is not
blocked, it works. [Duelist Magazine #4, Page 6]
These abilities can be used cumulatively with other "Is Not Blocked"
effects. [Duelist Magazine #4, Page 6]
No more than one of any specific ability can be used, however. Thus, two
of Farrel's Mantle on the same creature does not allow you to use the
ability twice. [Duelist Magazine #4, Page 6]
If one of these attackers is killed and regenerates, you can still use the
ability as long as it is not blocked. This is true because it is still
an attacker. [Aahz 06/22/95]
If an attacker changes controllers, it is removed from the attack and since
it is not attacking any longer, the new controller cannot use the ability.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 100]
The ability only checks to make sure it is not blocked when announced, it
does not check on resolution. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 100] This used
to matter when False Orders could be used during the fast effects after
blockers are declared, but False Orders now is used during the Declare
Blockers step of the attack.
Land:
Basic land types are: Forest, Island, Mountain, Plains, and Swamp.
Multilands and the lands introduced by expansion sets are not "basic"
lands types for purposes of any spell. [Page 60]
If something is turned into a basic land, it becomes a land of that name
with exactly the same card text and loses any previous abilities.
[Page 60]
Changing a land's type will not change the land's color if it was given a
color by a Lace or other effect. [Aahz 10/07/95]
Changing a land's type will not remove any expansion symbol the land might
have had. The symbol is still there. [Aahz 10/07/95]
+ Changing a land creature's land type can remove or change the creature type.
Thus, a Mishra's Factory which is animated to an Assembly Worker
and is then hit with a Phantasmal Terrain to become a Mountain is no
longer an Assembly Worker, it is just a 2/3 animated Mountain.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
+ If a land is animated by an effect that lasts until end of turn, such as
Mishra's Factory or Thelonite Druid, the effect will not wear off if the
land changes type. The land stays animated. [WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
Not all lands produce mana. If a land does not specifically say that it
does produce mana, then it doesn't.
Only tapping land for mana works at interrupt speed. Tapping a land for
any other effect is an instant (unless the card says otherwise).
[bethmo]
Lands are not spells. [Page 60]
Lands have no color. [Page 60]
If there is a question about what mana gets produced by a land, first figure
out what kind of land it is by applying any land changing effects
(like Conversion or Phantasmal Terrain) in the order they entered play.
Then figure out what color mana it produces by applying any color changing
effects (like Reality Twist). Finally figure out any additional mana
that might be produced (from Wild Growth, Mana Flare, etc.).
[Duelist Magazine #6, Page 130]
Mana Flare adds one of the color the land produces after applying all
effects. [Duelist Magazine #6, Page 130]
Landwalk:
A creature with a landwalk ability can be blocked normally if the defending
player does not have any lands of the appropriate type, but they cannot
be blocked at all if the defending player does have lands of that type.
[Page 35] Even other creatures with the same landwalk ability cannot
block them.
Cards which look for a kind of landwalk work whether or not the landwalk
is more specific or not. For example, an effect that targets a creature
with IslandWalk will work on one with Snow-Covered IslandWalk.
[WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
Legends:
Legend rules were introduced in the Legends expansion set and are in the
Fourth Edition rules.
Legends are considered creatures except that there may be only one legend
of the same name in play at a time. If a second legend of the same name
is brought into play, it is buried. If more than one legend is brought
into play at the same time, all of them are buried. [Legends Rulecard]
[Page 30]
The burial due to duplicate legends happens as a continuous effect and
will happen even before an interrupt can be declared.
Cards which affect "all legends" or use similar text refer to Summon Legend
and Summon Elder Dragon Legend cards. They do not refer to cards from
the Legends expansion set, nor do they refer to Legendary Lands.
[Duelist Magazine #2, Page 7]
The burial does cause a death event which can be used by Soul Net,
Scavenging Ghouls, and so on. [Aahz 06/16/94]
A copy of a Legend (Clone, Doppelganger, etc.) will immediately be buried
because it is considered the new Legend that is entering play.
[Duelist Magazine #2, Page 7]
Legends usually require more than one color of mana to cast. See the
"Color of a Spell" entry for information on multi-colored cards.
If you have a Legend face down because of Illusionary Mask or some other
effect, any duplicate Legend brought into play is still buried.
[WotC Rules Team 12/15/94]
Just because a card has a gold border does not make it a Legend.
+ All "Summon Elder Dragon Legend" cards have errata to make them say
"Summon Legend" instead. [WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
All "Summon Legend" cards were on the Duelists' Convocation restricted
list (only 1 per deck) for tournaments from 08/01/94 until 11/01/95.
Legendary Land:
Legendary Land rules were introduced in the Legends expansion set and
have not been seen in any other set as of yet.
Legendary lands are treated in the same manner as Legends except that
they are considered lands instead of creatures. [Legends Rulecard --
Complete text] (See the "Legends" entry for more information)
A Legendary Land is a new kind of land. It is still a land, however, and
follows all the rules for lands.
If a Legendary Land is "covered up" by Phantasmal Terrain or other land
changing effect, then it will not prevent another Legendary Land of that
name from entering play. When the effect is removed, if another
Legendary Land of that name entered play in the meantime, the newly
uncovered one is the one which is buried. It is the one considered to
have just entered play. [Aahz 06/22/94]
If by some chance the Legendary Land just entering play has Consecrate Land
on it, the land is still buried. The Legendary Land rules override the
Consecrate Land ability. [WotC Rules Team 07/27/94]
All Legendary Land cards were on the Duelists' Convocation restricted
list (only 1 per deck) for tournaments from 08/01/94 to 11/01/95.
Library:
You do not need to show anything which goes into or comes out of your
Library. [PPG Page 220]
No player may count the number of cards in their or any other player's
library. [Duelists' Supplement, 5/94]
Effects which allow you to dig into your library are not targeted.
[Aahz 06/18/95]
Life:
You lose if you have less than 1 life at the end of any phase or the
beginning or end of an attack. [Page 64]
You cannot spend yourself to below zero life.
You can be knocked to below zero life by damage.
Losing the Game:
Check for player death at the end of each phase, the beginning and end of
the attack. [Page 64] This allows even non-fast effects like Stream of
Life and other sorceries to save the player. As long as you have a
positive life total at the end of a phase, you will live.
If both players have life totals of zero or less at the time it is checked,
they both lose. It does not matter if one player is more negative than
the other. They are both dead. [Page 64]
You lose if you try to draw a card from your library and you can't
because the library has no more cards. [Page 64] This is true no matter
how or why you are drawing a card and happens immediately and not at the
end of the phase. [Page 64]
Check to see if a player loses only after fully resolving an effect and
not part way through. For example, if Wheel of Fortune is cast and
neither player has enough cards in their library, they both lose. It
is not the first one to draw that loses. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123]
This most often only applies to draw effects since that is one of the
few ways to lose because of an effect.
A player can concede at any time and if they do so they lose any ante
they have put up. [bethmo]
Loss of Life:
Loss of life is not the same as damage. Only players have life points.
Creatures do not. Life can be lost because you take damage, but it can
also be lost directly due to spells and effects which do not cause
damage.
There is no way to prevent the loss of life caused directly by spells and
effects. Only damage can be prevented. [PPG Page 113]
Note that the pre-Fourth Edition Conservator has errata issued to say that
it prevents damage to a player (rather than preventing loss of life) and
that Forcefield has errata saying that it prevents all but 1 point of
damage rather than causing one loss of life.
Loss of Life in general does not have color associated with it. [FAQ]
Lucky Charms:
Artifacts that do something based on an event (like "gain 1 life when
black spell is cast(1)") can only be used once per event, but multiple
artifacts or enchantments can catch the same event. [PPG Page 62] This
is spelled out on the Revised and Fourth Edition cards.
These "gain 1 life when xxx" effects are usable up until the end of the
current turn. [Duelist Magazine #3, Page 22] Since they are triggered
effects, they can be used immediately if you want, but you can wait.
Can only be used if the text on the card applied when the event happened
and when you pay to gain a life. So, if someone uses Sleight of Mind
to change the color word after a spell has been cast, then you can pay
the cost for spells the old color but it will fizzle. Spells of the
new color cast before the change cannot be paid for at all.
[Duelist Magazine #6, Page 131]
Effects like Soul Net and Tablet of Epityr are not considered "lucky charms"
even though they have a similar effect. [Aahz 07/05/95]
The Fourth Edition versions of the lucky charms say that they can only be
used once per spell cast and this means that they can only be paid for
once. The Limited, Unlimited and Revised Edition versions let you pay
more than once but only allow you to gain 1 life per spell cast. All
uses after the first one fail to do anything. [D'Angelo 10/12/95]
Mana Burn:
Mana burn is the damage caused by having extra mana in your pool at the
end of a phase or at the beginning or end of an attack. You take 1
colorless damage for each mana left in your pool. [Page 61]
Since it is damage, it can be prevented or redirected normally.
[Peterson 12/15/94]
Mana burn is a single action which uses all the mana in your pool. You
cannot use some of the mana to prevent the rest from harming you. You
can use other mana sources to cast spells to prevent the damage,
though. [WotC Rules Team]
Mana Pool:
Spells costs are not paid by tapping lands. Spells costs are paid by
using mana from your mana pool. [Page 60] You cannot shortcut mana from
the land directly to the spell. It must go to the pool first.
Tapping basic lands is the most common way to add mana to your mana pool.
[Page 60]
You can leave mana in your pool during the casting of several spells.
If you have mana in your pool at the end of a phase or the beginning or
ending of an attack, then you will take mana burn (See the "Mana Burn"
entry for information). [Page 61]
Modal Effects:
Some effects require a choice as to which mode they operate in. This choice
is a casting decision made on announcement. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
Cards worded as "Do A to target X or do B to target Y" or "Do A or do B to
target X" require you to choose which of the two options is being used.
If the spell is Forked or Deflected, this choice of mode cannot be
changed. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95] For example, Red Elemental Blast
lets you choose to counter a spell or destroy a permanent. If the choice
is made to counter a spell, then a target spell is selected. The Blast
cannot then be redirected to target a permanent since that is an illegal
target for the spell's mode.
Cards worded as "Do A to target X, Y, or Z" are not modal. You do not have
to choose the type of target before choosing the target.
[WotC Rules Team 09/22/95] For example, Twiddle can tap a land, artifact
or creature. If the effect was redirected, the type of the target could
be changed, but the choice to tap or untap is modal and cannot be changed.
Interpretting to figure out if a spell is modal can be tricky. In general,
if the spell does more than one kind of effect (which is usually easy to
pick out since there will be more than one verb) then it is probably modal
with regards to those kinds of effects.
Some effects are considered modal even though the choice is not up to the
player. For example, Urza's Tower has two modes: "add one mana" and
"add three mana". The mode is locked in on announcement and is not
changed later even if which lands you control changes.
[WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
Moving Enchantments:
A couple of different effects can result in the moving of an enchantment
from one target to another. They are Enchantment Alteration and
Crown of the Ages.
Moving an enchantment will cause anything that happens because of it
"entering play" to happen, whether the effect is due to the card itself
or due to an external effect. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95] This means any
one-time effects, such as Earthbind dealing 2 damage or Krovikan Fetish
letting you draw a card, happen. [bethmo 07/13/94]
Moving an enchantment will not trigger any effects that trigger when a spell
is cast, such as Verduran Enchantress or a "Lucky Charm".
[WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
Moving an enchantment will remove any counters or state on it. Even the
effects of interrupts like Sleight of Mind are removed. It starts over
fresh as if just cast. [WotC Rules Team 09/22/95] All cumulative upkeep
on the card is reset. [D'Angelo 09/25/95] The cumulative upkeep effect
from a Balduvian Shaman is also removed completely. [D'Angelo 09/25/95]
+ Cannot move an Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead enchantments onto a live
creature and you cannot move it onto a creature in a graveyard.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 98] (The second part is a REVERSAL)
You can move an Animate Dead enchantment onto another creature which already
has Animate Dead on it. [Duelist Magazine #2, Page 8] Dance of the Dead
in interchangable with Animate Dead for this ruling. [Aahz 10/09/95]
When the enchantment is moved, it forgets that it had been used that turn.
So, you can use an Instill Energy again if you move it.
[WotC Rules Team 09/15/94]
If you move an enchantment such as Firebreathing after mana has been spent
to pump it up, the effects of the pumping are directly on the creature and
do not move with the Firebreathing card. [Aahz 12/16/94] If you moved it
after activation but before resolution, the effect will still happen to
the original creature and not the new one because this is locked in on
announcement of the effect. [Aahz 10/09/95]
If the enchantment itself has upkeep costs or effects and you deal with them
prior to moving it, you still have to deal with them again because it
acts as just cast and forgets you dealt with it.
[WotC Rules Team 11/16/94]
If there is an X in the casting cost of the enchantment, treat X as zero
when it is "re-cast". [D'Angelo 04/14/95]
+ Decisions made when the enchantment "enters play" are made again. Thus,
Prismatic Ward's color can be changed. Casting decision are also made
again. Thus, you can change the land type specified by a Phantasmal
Terrain. [WotC Rules Team 11/10/95] (The part about casting decisions is
a REVERSAL.)
Any choices made when moving the enchantment are made by the enchantment's
controller/caster and not necessarily by the player using the move effect.
[D'Angelo 09/25/95]
The enchantment being moved is not considered to have left play or to be
a different card. Thus, if the enchantment was the target of a spell or
effect, the spell or effect would not fizzle due to lack of target if
the enchantment were moved in the meantime. [D'Angelo 09/26/95]
Multiplayer Rulings:
Opponent is defined as any player other than yourself.
In team play, opponent should not include your teammates.
[WotC Rules Team 01/10/95]
In multiplayer games, cards which read "both players" affect all players.
[Snark]
A permanent that targets a player as a continuous effect has a single
player chosen when it is cast. This player choice cannot be changed
even if the permanent changes control. If the target player leaves the
game then the permanent becomes useless but stays in play.
[WotC Rules Team 01/10/95]
A permanent that targets a player when it is activated may choose a player
each time it is used. [WotC Rules Team 01/10/95]
A permanent that says "opponent's choice" allows you to choose an opponent
each time the choice needs to be made. Examples are Demonic Hordes and
Clergy of the Holy Nimbus. [WotC Rules Team 01/10/95]
If a card reads "each upkeep" or "each turn", it means each of your
upkeep phases or each of your turns. If the card affects multiple
players, it affects each player during his (or her) upkeep or turn.
In most multiplayer rule sets, if a player is killed, all of that
player's cards are immediately removed from the game. This can have
a drastic effect on the balance of power in the game.
Must Attack:
If a creature is forced to attack, it does not have to attack immediately,
but it must attack this turn if possible. [PPG Page 224]
Being already tapped or being tapped for a special ability prior to the
attack will make it unable to attack.
Being prevented by an effect such as Island Sanctuary, or card text such
as the Sea Serpent's "cannot attack if opponent has no Islands" will also
make it unable to attack.
You are not forced to maximize the number of "must attack" attackers that
you can declare. "Must attack" creatures do have to be declared first,
but if one of them has Errantry on it you can declare that one and thereby
cause the others to be unable to attack. You cannot use a non-"must
attack" creature with Errantry to do this, however. [D'Angelo 07/25/95]
You cannot use the declaration of a non-"must attack" attacker as a way to
avoid attacking with a "must attack" attacker. For example, if you are
only allowed to declare 2 attackers, those two slots must be taken by
"must attack" creatures if possible. [WotC Rules Team 09/15/94] This
works out so that "must attack" attackers must be declared before other
attackers.
If there is a cost to declare the attacker, you must pay it unless it is
somehow prevented from attacking.
On Its Way to the Graveyard:
A permanent is "on its way to the graveyard" if it has enough damage on it
to kill it, or if a destroy or bury effect has resolved against it.
Note that this works out so that the only time in which a permanent can be
"on its way to the graveyard" is during a damage prevention step.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 36] See the "Damage Prevention" entry under
"Spell and Effect Timing" for more information.
A permanent is not on its way to the graveyard when a damaging or
destroying effect has been announced. It is a still in play until the
effect in question resolves.
A permanent which is scheduled to be "destroyed at end of turn" or to be
"destroyed at the end of combat" is not considered to be on its way
to the graveyard.
A permanent which is on its way to the graveyard cannot be sacrificed.
Order to Apply Effects:
The rule for effects is that the most recent one takes precedence. For
example, if Earthbind is placed on a creature and then Flight is placed
on the creature, the Flight will take precedence because it is last.
[PPG Page 220]
This goes for general continuous effects as well as it does for enchantments
or abilities on a specific permanent. If Gravity Sphere is put into
play, it removes Flying ability from all creatures in play. If a Flight
spell were placed on the creature after that, the Flight would have
precedence because it took effect more recently. [bethmo 06/29/94]
If the source of an effect is removed, reapply the effects in order of
casting. This does not happen often but is theoretically possible.
For example, if you cast a Conversion spell to change all Mountains into
Plains and then used Magical Hack on a second Conversion spell to
turn all Mountains into Forests, the first one would be applied and turn
them all into Plains. The second one would find no Mountains in play,
so it would do nothing. Later, if the first one were removed, the
second one would immediately discover the Mountains and convert them to
Forests. [bethmo 06/29/94]
Permanent:
A permanent is any card in play (enchantments, creatures, artifacts, land)
or any token which represents a creature. [Page 61]
Cards in play are not spells, they are "permanents". They can no longer
be affected by things that affect "spells" (i.e. Counterspell, Lifeforce)
[Page 29]
A permanent stays in play until destroyed by an effect or is otherwise
removed from play. You cannot just discard a permanent because you no
longer want it. [Page 29]
Spells which become permanents do not become permanents until they resolve.
[Page 61] (The rulebook says "cast" but this is a mistake.)
Poison:
Poison counters are poison counters. A player dies if they have 10 such
counters no matter what the source is. [Duelist Magazine #2, Page 7]
Protection from Color:
Protection from a color means that a creature: [Page 39]
1. Reduces damage of <Color> to zero.
2. Cannot be blocked by <Color> creatures.
3. Cannot be targeted by <Color> effects or spells, but it may be
affected by spells or effects of that color which do not target it
specifically but ability #1 is still in effect if such a spell does
damage.
4. Has any enchantments of <Color> removed
Protection from Color does not protect creatures from general enchantments
or spells. So a creature with Protection from Red is still affected by
Orcish Oriflamme.
Protection from Color does not stop damage prevention spells from
working. Damage prevention spells target the damage and not the
creature. [PPG Page 89] For example, you can use a Healing Salve to
remove damage from a creature with Protection from White.
See the "Targeting" entry for more information on what is targeted and
what is not.
Protection from Color does not protect creatures from being sacrificed
(even from spells or effects of the appropriate color). Sacrificing is
not considered a targeted effect.
The "cannot be blocked by <color> creatures" ability is an absolute
statement. The creature cannot even be blocked by creatures of <color>
which have Protection from the appropriate color. So, a Black Knight
and a White Knight cannot meet each other in combat.
Protection from Color protects the creature but it does not protect any
of the enchantments on the creature. [bethmo]
A Protection from Color ability does not work for a creature while it is
in the graveyard. Hence a White Knight can have Animate Dead cast on
it and a Black Knight can be Resurrected. [bethmo] Note that the
White Knight would immediately dispel the Animate Dead and go back to
the graveyard, but the example still holds.
Rampage:
Rampage rules were introduced in the Legends expansion set and is in the
Fourth Edition rules.
After defense is chosen but before damage is assigned, an attacking
creature with 'rampage:*' rains +*/+* until end of turn for each
creature beyond the first assigned to block it. [Legends Rulecard]
[Page 39]
Bonus is applied when blockers are declared and lasts until the end of
the turn. Removing a blocker after this does not change the bonus.
[Duelist Magazine #2, Page 7]
Fog does not stop the bonus from being gained. [Aahz 02/09/95]
Regeneration:
Regeneration means prevention of sending the card to the graveyard,
which is equivalent to saying it prevents a creature from dying or
a card from being destroyed. [Page 33] The Fourth Edition rulebook
only mentions destroy by damage, but other forms of destroy can be
regenerated from. [Aahz 06/06/95]
Regeneration abilities and spells must be used at the time the creature
would be sent to the graveyard. [Page 33] This only happens during
the damage prevention step. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122]
When a creature regenerates, damage on it is not "removed", the damage on
the creature just gets ignored until the end of the turn.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122] The effect seems to be 100% identical to
removal except that the damage is remembered in case there is a way to
retroactively remove it and for things like Trample to be calculated.
A regeneration effect will fail if enough damage is removed from a creature
that dies due to lethal damage so that the damage is no longer lethal
prior to resolution. It'll also fail if the creature is not still dying
(which could happen it it has already been regenerated).
[WotC Rules Team 08/17/95]
When a creature is regenerated, all enchantments and counters remain on
the creature, and the creature becomes tapped if it was not already
tapped. [Page 33] This tapping of the creature is not a cost, it is an
effect, and so tapped creatures can be regenerated. [Page 33]
Regeneration effects are considered to 'target the death of the creature'.
If there is not a death, you cannot use the regeneration effect.
[Duelist Magazine #6, Page 130] This includes spells that just say
something like "Regenerates target creature". Implicit in this is
"...which is dying". [Aahz 08/16/95]
Cannot regenerate a creature which is "buried", "removed from the game".
or "sacrificed". [Page 33]
Regeneration does not remove any "will die at end of turn" or similar
such fates hanging over creatures.
You can pay for Regeneration abilities more than once in a single spell
stack. The first one to resolve will do so successfully. Later ones
will fizzle since the creature is no longer dying.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 98] This provides an interesting way to sink
mana.
Remove from the Game:
If a creature is "removed from the game" by some effect, it cannot be
regenerated. [Page 62] Also, all enchantments on the creature are put
in the graveyard just like they would if the creature were destroyed.
Sacrifice:
You can only sacrifice things that you control. [Page 62]
A sacrifice is considered a cost in the casting of a spell or powering an
effect. It is used up at the same time the mana would be. Such costs
are not preventable by any means, including regeneration. [Page 62]
A sacrifice buries the affected permanent immediately. [Page 62]
Sacrificing is not a targeted effect. [Page 62] So Protection from Color
will not protect a creature from a sacrifice. (This is true even though
page 59 of the PPG indicates otherwise. The book is in error.)
[WotC Rules Team]
A permanent can sacrifice itself to itself as part of an ability unless
prevented by some card text or other means.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123]
You cannot sacrifice a permanent if it has enough damage on it to kill it
or if a destroy or bury effect has resolved against it. [Page 62] (See
the "On Its Way to the Graveyard" entry for more information.) Note that
this works out so that the only time in which a permanent cannot be
sacrificed is during a damage prevention step in which it has damage or
is being destroyed.
You cannot sacrifice a card in your hand. All cards which had you
sacrifice from your hand have errata on them saying that it should be
a normal discard. This means such discards are not costs so they are
done at resolution instead of announcement. [WotC Rules Team 05/10/95]
The Antiquities expansion used the text "choose one of your artifacts in
play and place it in the graveyard" to mean a sacrifice. It does not
matter if the choose is before or after the ability. [bethmo]
Any Limited/Unlimited/Arabian Nights/Antiquities card which destroys
itself when used is considered to sacrifice itself.
[WotC Rules Team 01/29/94]
You can sacrifice something even if it is tapped or has just entered play.
There is no summoning sickness or "turning off" for sacrifices.
[D'Angelo 07/05/95]
A sacrifice does not cause a damage prevention step to occur, but it does
cause "death" events to happen so enything that triggers on a card
going to the graveyard can trigger. [Aahz 10/05/95]
Snow-Covered Lands:
Think of "snow-covered" as another adjective about a card, like color or
artifactness. For example, a land can be a basic Plains and be animated,
snow-covered, artifact and blue all at once.
The rulebook says "Snow-covered lands are considered basic lands." What
this means is that the cards named "Snow-covered XXXX" are considered to
be basic XXXX cards. [D'Angelo 06/08/95] More accurately, the rule should
have been written that "Snow-covered lands are treated like
non-snow-covered lands of the same type". [bethmo 07/24/95]
+ They are considered to be of the proper basic land type. Anything which
affects Plains will affect a Snow-Covered Plains. Forestwalk will work
on a Snow-Covered Forest. [Duelist Magazine #6, Page 132] Land Tax and
other cards that look for basic lands also work on them.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 8]
Effects that change a land type, like Phantasmal Terrain, cannot give a
land Snow-Covered nature or take it away. [Duelist Magazine #6, Page 132]
If you change a Snow-Covered Forest to a Mountain with Phantasmal Terrain,
then it is a Snow-Covered Mountain.
Cards which require Snow-Covered lands only work on such lands. Ones that
only require a land type work whether or not it is Snow-Covered.
[Duelist Magazine #6, Page 132]
Cards which look for a kind of landwalk work whether or not the landwalk
is more specific or not. For example, an effect that targets a creature
with IslandWalk will work on one with Snow-Covered IslandWalk.
[WotC Rules Team 09/22/95]
+ If you manage to make a non-basic land gain the snow-covered attribute, it
does not become a basic land. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 8]
Successfully Cast:
A spell is considered successfully cast once it leaves step 2 of its life
cycle. See the "Life-Cycle of a Spell or Effect" entry in the Spell and
Effect Timing section for more information.
Summoning Sickness:
Creatures cannot attack (or be tapped for a special ability) unless that
creature's card or token has been in play on your side since the
beginning of your most recent turn. [Page 30] This includes all possible
ways of getting creatures: Summon, Animate, Resurrect, Living Lands,
Control Magic, etc. [WotC Rules Team]
If a card or token starts your turn in play on your side, leaves your
side and then returns in the same turn, you cannot use it. It must
wait until it begins your turn in play on your side again.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123] (This is a REVERSAL)
Cards which are animated during a turn may attack or use their non-creature
abilities even on the turn they become creatures if they began the turn
in play on your side (creature or not)! [WotC Rules Team]
If a non-creature is tapped for an ability on the turn it enters play and
is animated so that it is a creature at some time before the ability
resolves, the effect will not fizzle. [D'Angelo 06/07/95]
Tap and Hold Effects:
Effects for which you tap the card, and the effects last as long as the
card is tapped are called 'tap and hold effects'.
Although these cards only say "as long as it remains tapped", it also
means "and is in play" because a card which is not in play cannot be
still tapped. [D'Angelo 09/12/95]
The effect lasts until the card is untapped. This is similar to a normal
time duration effect such as "until end of turn", but is "until the
card which generated the effect is untapped or leaves play".
[D'Angelo 09/12/95]
+ If the card untaps before the tap and hold effect actually resolves, the
tap and hold effect ends immediately after the effect resolves. This
means that the full effect takes place then stops immediately thereafter
causing anything that happens when the effect ends to happen.
[WotC Rules Team 11/10/95]
The effect continues even if the card loses its abilities (which is possible
if an artifact is animated by Titania's Song or a lang changes type by
Phantasmal Terrain). It only ends if the card untaps or leaves play.
[D'Angelo 09/12/95]
If one of these cards or its target enters an Oublitte or Tawnos's Coffin,
the effect will end and will not restart when it re-enters play.
[D'Angelo 9/12/95]
Target:
Any spell which lets you pick a target (as opposed to a "target something")
can be aimed at any player or creature. [Page 16]
Targeting--Announcing and Resolving:
You may not announce a targeted spell or effect unless it is aimed at a
legal target. [Page 63]
You may not announce a targeted spell declaring an illegal target with
the intent to use an interrupt afterward to somehow make the target
legal. [bethmo]
Spells which target "all" of something can be played even if there is
none of the somethings available. [Page 63] For example, you can use
Flashfires even if no Plains are in play. This is because the spell
does not require a target to act upon. It just does something.
In addition to having a valid target when announced, a spell or effect must
have a valid target when resolved. If the target is not valid when
the spell or effect would resolve, then it fizzles. [PPG Page 99]
Spells can be modified between being announced and being successfully cast.
If something about the targeting makes the target choice illegal at that
time then the spell will fizzle. Effects have all their attributes
set on announcement and even text changes to the source card cannot make
the effect fizzle. It remembers what the text said when it was
announced. [D'Angelo 05/26/95]
There are many ways to make a target illegal before resolution. The
most common way is for the target to be destroyed, unsummoned or
otherwise removed from play prior to resolution. Other requirements
on the targeting may be invalidated due to adding Protection from Color
to a target creature, or through the use of interrupts to change the
color or wording of the spell/effect or target.
Spells always resolve as completely as possible. A spell that says "Do one
thing. Do another" or one that says "Do one thing and do another" will
do both parts even if one part fails (see the next entry for the exception
to this rule). [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 22]
If all the targeted parts of a spell fizzle, then the untargeted parts will
not take effect. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 22] This is true even for
"Do one thing to do another" effects where the "another" part is the
targeted one. The "one thing" would not happen if the target was
illegal. [Aahz 08/01/95] For example, Crumble targets an artifact to be
buried and has an untargeted gaining of life. If the target becomes
invalid and the spell fizzles then no life will be given.
Spells that say "Do one thing to do another" means that doing the first
thing successfully is a requirement for the other thing to take place.
If the first thing is multiply targeted, _all_ the targets must be
successful. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 22] Note that success means that
it does not fizzle and that the action was also completed. An example of
failure (non-success) is trying to tap a tapped card.
If a spell has multiple targets and one of the targets is removed from
play, only that one portion of the spell fizzles out. The rest of the
targets are affected normally. [Page 63] For example, if a Fireball
is used on 3 targets and one is Unsummoned, the damage is still spread
between the 3 targets with one target's damage fizzling out.
Abilities which say "target creature" only apply targeting rules when they
are announced and when they resolve. After that, the fact that the
target is still a creature is not checked any more.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123] This mostly applies to card stealing such
as Aladdin and Seasinger. You do not lose control of the card if it
stops being a valid target.
Targeting--Is Something Targeted:
New cards are clear as to when something is targeted (it will use the word
'target' on the card), but older cards were not so clear.
When deciding if a spell/effect targets a something or if it is a general
effect, just ask if the player using the effect at any time chooses
something to be affected. If no choice is made, then it is a general
effect, if at least once a card or target must be specified, then it is
a targeted effect. [bethmo]
Choosing defenders is not a choice that makes something a targeted
effect. [Page 63] Hence abilities which affect creatures "blocking" or
"blocked by" a creature are not targeted and are not stopped by
Protection from Color. For example, a Green Ward will not save a
creature from being destroyed by the Thicket Basilisk.
[WotC Rules Team 02/07/94]
Any spell or permanent that affects itself does so in a non-targeted way.
[D'Angelo 05/19/95] Although some targeted effects can be aimed at the
permanent that generated the effect. If this happens, it is still a
targeted effect.
Combat damage and effects are not targeted. [Page 63] This means that the
Basilisk gaze, Battering Ram ability, Aisling Leprechaun, and others are
not targeted abilities and will therefore not be prevented by Protection
from Color or other "you can't target me" effects.
Spells/effects which affect a card which is in the graveyard are targeted.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 123]
No spell or effect (other than the Ring of Ma'ruf) can target a card
which is outside of the game. [Page 61]
Enchantments on a permanent only target the permanent when cast. Once in
play, they no longer target that permanent when using the ability on them.
For example, Firebreathing does not target the creature to give it +1/+0
and Regeneration does not target the creature when it is used.
[WotC Rules Team 02/09/95]
If a card reads "a xxx" or "any xxx" it means "any one xxx in play, no
matter who it belongs to." [bethmo]
Targeting--Valid Targets:
Damage prevention spells usually target the damage and not the source of
the damage or even the creature or player with damage on it.
[WotC Rules Team 05/03/95]
You may target an effect which removes an ability at a permanent without
that ability. It just does nothing. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 23]
You may target a tapping effect at a tapped card or an untapping effect
at an untapped card unless the card says it targets a tapped or untapped
permanent. [Duelist Magazine #5, Page 22]
Spells that target "attacking" or "defending" creatures may only be used
during an attack. [bethmo] If they are untargeted spells, they may be
used at any time. [Aahz]
You cannot target a spell which will become a permanent with a spell/effect
that targets a permanent until the permanent resolves. Prior to it
resolving, it is just a spell. [Page 63]
Token Creatures:
Creatures represented by tokens are not "cards" in the game sense.
[Page 63] This means that they cannot be targeted by spells which
specify a card (like Revised Edition Red Elemental Blast and Revised
Edition Desert Twister which say "card" rather than "permanent").
Token creatures are also removed from the game entirely if they are ever
Unsummoned, destroyed, or otherwise removed from play. [Page 63]
Since this is a continuous effect, it happens before even an interrupt
can be declared. Before leaving the game, they actually do go to the
graveyard or player's hand very briefly. Trips to the graveyard can be
used by Soul Net and other cards. [Duelist Magazine #6, Page 130] (This
overrides the ruling on page 15 of Duelist Magazine #2)
Token creature are considered to have a zero casting cost. [Page 58]
Note that this is true even if a cost was paid to generate the token
creature (i.e. a Wasp from the Hive).
A Clone (or other copy card used on a token creature) is a card and not a
token, so the copy ignores any text on the card which created the token
which spells out the token creature rules.
Token creatures are not considered to have expansion symbols on them so
they ignore "expansion killer" cards like City in a Bottle or
Golgothian Sylex.
Tokens are permanents. [Page 63]
The 'owner' of the token is the player that played the effect that brought
the token into play. [Aahz 06/08/95]
Trample:
If a mix of Trample and non-Trample damage are involved, non-Trample
damage is assigned first, and Trample damage is assigned afterwards.
[Page 35]
The excess Trample damage is redirected to the defending player and
results in a second damage prevention step. Since this is redirection,
any effects due to the damage will happen to the player. The damage
also retains color and any other properties.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122]
If a Trample creature is blocked by an unbanded group, the player may
assign all of the damage to one of the blockers and cause the Trample
damage in excess of the blocker's toughness to go on to the defending
player. [Page 38]
If a Trample creature is blocked but you cannot assign damage to any of
the blockers (because they regenerated or have a cannot assign damage
to them effect), then all the Trample damage goes to the defending player.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 122]
A creature with Trample ability which has its blocker removed is still
blocked but all the damage that creature would do goes through to the
defender after trampling the non-existent blocker.
Defenders do not get to use Trample ability. Only attackers.
[PPG Page 85]
Untapping a Permanent:
Untapping a permanent does not undo the effects of that card; it merely
makes the card available to be used again. [bethmo]
You can use an untap effect on an untapped card. The effect does not
"fizzle", but it does "fail" to do anything.
[Duelist Magazine #5, Page 23]
+ Must pay the entire untap cost on a creature or none of it. For example,
if an Island Fish Jasconius had two Paralyze spells on it, you would have
to pay the three blue mana plus 8 mana of any color to untap it.
[Duelist Magazine #7, Page 98]
+ An external effect which untaps the card, such as Jandor's Saddlebags,
Twiddle or Instill Energy is not cumulative with untap costs. They just
untap the card. [Duelist Magazine #7, Page 98]
Walls:
Walls are in all senses creatures. They are affected by any spell or
effect which affects creatures (including Paralyze, Terror, Creature
Bond, and so on). [Page 30]
Walls cannot attack even if power is greater than zero. If Animate Wall
is used on them, they may attack even if power is zero. [Page 30]
Creatures which say "Counts as a Wall" are Walls.
'X' Cost:
If there is an 'X' in the cost, consider the amount paid in 'X' to be
part of the cost during casting, but to be zero after the card is
successfully cast. [PPG Page 56]
Spells with an X cost can legally be cast with zero as the X.
[Page 12]
Spells with an X cost are declared when they are cast as to how much mana
is in them. This amount cannot be increased or decreased after it is
declared.
Other Rules and Rulings That Defied Categorization
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All cards are to be played as written (and with any official errata).
There is no ruling that cards should be played using the most recent
wording. For example, an Alpha printing Orcish Oriflamme really costs
just R1 and not R3 to cast.
It is not legal to spend mana on preventions like Circle of Protection or
Death Ward (but not limited to them) when there is no valid action to
be countering. Equally, you cannot Animate Artifact when there are no
artifacts. Basically, you cannot make an excuse just to get rid of
cards or mana. [PPG Page 57]
An ability without an activation cost which says it is used during a
certain phase can only be used once during that phase, regardless if
the effect is successful or not. [WotC Rules Team 04/26/95] For example,
the Doppelganger can only switch forms once per upkeep.
If a card says that you must pay mana or bad things happen, the mana
expenditure is not mandatory unless the card specifies exactly what
sources of mana should be used. For example, Power Sink specifies
lands and mana pool, so you must spend the mana. Demonic Hordes,
Force of Nature, Stasis, etc. do not specify and so are optional.
[Aahz]
Rounding down means to drop the fractional part. Rounding up means to
add 1 and then drop the fractional part. [bethmo 05/30/94]
Tournament Rulings
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
General:
English language cards are to be played by the wording on the card (plus
any errata) and NOT according to the most recent English version of that
card. There is a push to make play shift to the most recent wordings, but
this push has not become a rule as of yet.
Non-English language cards are to be played by the most recent English
language version of that card. Translational errors are avoided in this
way.
Mixed language decks can be played. [Aahz 07/09/95]
The judge may rule that Alpha printing cards are marked. If so, your
deck must not contain them or only contain them. If this optional rule
is to be used by the judge, it must be announced in advance.
Floor Rules:
Decision of the judge is final. This is true even if the judge turns out
later to have made an incorrect ruling.
All tournaments are single elimination, double elimination, round-robin,
or swiss draw format with each round consisting of up to 3 duels during
a fixed time limit. A win gets 3 points and a draw gets 1 point. A bye
gives a player 6 points. [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Players cannot change the contents of their deck and sideboard throughout
the entire tournament, but cards can be rotated between the deck and
sideboard between games. The sideboard (if used at all) must always have
exactly 15 cards (except in Sealed Deck tournaments).
Ante is not required but if both players choose to do so, they may. Any
cards won this way are not added to the deck. If loss of cards causes
the deck to be illegal, then you are disqualified.
If a player draws all land or no land in the initial 7 cards, they can
call a 'mulligan' and reshuffle, recut, and draw again. If a player does
this, the opponent has the option of doing so as well. Each player is
allowed to use this rule once per duel.
Card sleeves are allowed on cards, but the judge or opponent in a specific
duel may request that they be removed. If this is requested, it must
be complied with.
You can always use a card sleeve as a reminder when placing one of your
cards in your opponent's territory.
Using "proxy" cards is not allowed.
A time limit of 45 or more minutes may be placed on a round other than the
semi-final or final rounds. A 10 minute warning should be given. The
duel is over when the time is called, except the current player has 60
seconds to finish their turn. The turn is considered started if they
had already untapped all their cards. [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
If time runs out during the first or third duel, then the player with the
highest life total at that time wins. If it is during the second duel,
then the player that won the first one wins.
Players can look through their sideboards during play. [bethmo 07/18/95]
Your opponent is always entitled to shuffle your deck if they want to.
They get the right to a final shuffle if they want it. This is to
prevent people from possibly stacking the deck. Usually people just
settle for "cutting the deck".
Type I:
Can be composed of cards from any edition or expansion of Magic (unless the
judge says otherwise). Collector's Edition cards are not allowed.
There is a grace period of one month from the date of the release of a new
edition or expansion during which the cards valid under the Type I rules
prior to that edition/expansion are still valid and the new cards are
not valid. After that 30 day period, the new cards will be allowed
and any old ones will be disallowed. [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Minimum of 60 cards in a deck.
Optional 'sideboard'. If you have one, it must be exactly 15 cards.
No more than 4 of any card which is not a basic land can be in the
combination of deck and sideboard. Cards with different art or in
different languages or from different prints but which are the same card
are considered the same.
Some cards are 'restricted' so that only one may appear in the combination
of deck and sideboard. These cards are: [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Ali from Cairo Fork Mox Sapphire
Ancestral Recall Ivory Tower Mox Jet
Balance Library of Alexandria Recall
Berserk Maze of Ith Regrowth
Black Lotus Mind Twist Sol Ring
Braingeyser Mirror Universe Sword of Ages
Candelabra of Tawnos Mishra's Workshop Timetwister
Copy Artifact Mox Emerald Time Walk
Demonic Tutor Mox Pearl Underworld Dreams
Feldon's Cane Mox Ruby Wheel of Fortune
Zuran Orb
Some cards are 'banned' so that none may appear in the deck or sideboard.
These cards are: [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Amulet of Quoz Darkpact Rebirth
Bronze Tablet Demonic Attorney Sharazhad
Channel Divine Intervention Time Vault
Chaos Orb Falling Star Tempest Efreet
Contract from Below Jeweled Bird
Summon Legend and Legendary Land cards used to be restricted but are not
after 11/01/95. Channel, Chaos Orb, and Falling Star are restricted
until 11/01/95 and then they become banned. Zuran Orb is not actually
restricted until 11/01/95. [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Ring of Ma'Ruf can only bring in cards from the sideboard or ones that were
removed from the game by an effect such as Swords to Plowshares.
Type II:
Can be composed of cards from the most recent edition of The Gathering
(currently Fourth Edition), white border extensions (Chronicles) and
all available limited edition expansions (currently Ice Age, Fallen
Empires and soon Homelands). A limited edition set will not be removed
without 90 days notice from the Duelists' Convocation.
[Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Cards from previous editions or expansions which are in the current one
are allowed. Collector's Edition and promo cards are not allowed.
There is a grace period of one month from the date of the release of a new
edition or expansion during which the cards valid under the Type II rules
prior to that edition/expansion are still valid and the new cards are
not valid. After that 30 day period, the new cards will be allowed
and any old ones will be disallowed. [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Minimum of 60 cards in a deck.
Optional 'sideboard'. If you have one, it must be exactly 15 cards.
No more than 4 of any card which is not a basic land can be in the
combination of deck and sideboard. Cards with different art or in
different languages or from different prints but which are the same card
are considered the same.
Some cards are 'restricted' so that only one may appear in the combination
of deck and sideboard. These cards are: [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Balance Ivory Tower Recall
Feldon's Cane Mind Twist Zuran Orb
Some cards are 'banned' so that none may appear in the deck or sideboard.
These cards are: [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Amulet of Quoz Channel Tempest Efreet
Bronze Tablet Rebirth
Summon Legend and Legendary Land cards used to be restricted but are not
after 11/01/95. Channel is restricted until 11/01/95 and then it becomes
banned. Zuran Orb is not actually restricted until 11/01/95.
[Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Ice Age is to be considered a limited edition expansion under these rules.
Chronicles is to be considered an extension of the main set under these
rules.
Sealed Deck:
Decks consist of one unopened Magic: The Gathering or Ice Age starter
(60 cards) plus either three 8 card boosters or two 15 card boosters from
an expansion set or the main set, Ice Age or Chronicles. The judge can
optionally allow 4 basic lands to be added to this.
[Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
45 minutes are given to construct the deck.
There is no 30 day period after an expansion set is released in which the
expansion is not valid for Sealed Deck tournements.
[Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Minimum of 40 cards in the play deck.
All additional cards function as the 'sideboard'. The sideboard and deck
size can change freely between duels.
All games are played for ante. Cards won this way are added to the player's
sideboard.
No restricted or banned cards.
Ice Age Constructed Deck:
Only cards from Ice Age can be used with the exception of basic lands (which
do not have to be from Ice Age).
Minimum of 60 cards in the play deck.
Optional 'sideboard'. If you have one, it must be exactly 15 cards.
No more than 4 of any card which is not a basic land can be in the
combination of deck and sideboard. Cards with different art or in
different languages or from different prints but which are the same card
are considered the same.
Some cards are 'restricted' so that only one may appear in the combination
of deck and sideboard. These cards are: [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Zuran Orb
Some cards are 'banned' so that none may appear in the deck or sideboard.
These cards are: [Tourney Rules 10/01/95]
Amulet of Quoz
Ice Age Sealed Deck:
Decks consist of one unopened Ice Age starter (60 cards) plus two 15 card
Ice Age boosters. The judge can optionally allow 4 basic lands to
be added to this. 45 minutes are given to construct the deck.
Minimum of 40 cards in the play deck.
All additional cards function as the 'sideboard'. The sideboard and deck
size can change freely between duels.
All games are played for ante. Cards won this way are added to the player's
sideboard.
No restricted or banned cards.
Rating System:
All players start with a rating of 1600.
People who have played less than 25 matches (best 2 of 3) are considered
to have a 'provisional rating'. After that, scores should be accurate
to within plus or minus 56 points.
During 'provisional rating' period, a person's rating is:
(Rc) + ((400 * (wins - losses)) / number of games)
Rc = Average rating of all opponents
Once a player is off of provisional rating, their score changes with each
game: New Score = (Old Score) + (K * (W - We))
K = 32 for ratings of 0-2099, 24 for 2100-2399, 16 for 2400 and up.
W = 1 for a win, 0 for a loss
We = 1 / ((10^D)+1)
D = (difference between your and opponent's ratings) / 400
Scores only count in officially sanctioned tournaments and if the
tournament coordinator actually sends the results to WotC.
Acknowledgements and Disclaimers
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This summary is collected from rulings made by officials and network
representatives of Wizards of the Coast, along with a number of
unofficial rulings also collected from the net. Whenever a source for
a ruling is known, the name of that person is listed with the ruling.
"D'Angelo" is Stephen D'Angelo, the network representative for the
"mtg-l" mailing list. "Peterson" is Paul Peterson, the previous "mtg-l"
representative. "bethmo" is Beth Moursund, the representative before
Paul. "Aahz" is Tom Wylie, the network representative for
the "rec.games.deckmaster" and "rec.games.trading-cards.magic.*"
newsgroups. "Snark" is Dave Howell of WotC. Official rulings from the
rules team are marked as "WotC Rules Team". Rules from the Fourth
Edition rule book are marked with "Page #" (the Ice Age rulebook is
exactly the same except add 2 pages to the page #) and rules from the
Pocket Player's Guide are marked with "PPG Page #"
Every attempt has been made to make this summary accurate, but errors do
creep in. This work should not be considered official or sponsored by
Wizards of the Coast. Nothing in this work is guaranteed to be accurate.
Use at your own risk.
Magic: The Gathering and all of the cards listed herein are copyrighted by
Wizards of the Coast.